Amid high pollution levels and smog in the National Capital, inspite of having smog towers in the city and with Delhi remaining shrouded under a thick blanket of haze, the smog tower, which was inaugurated by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in 2021 amid much fanfare, is 'locked up'.

The Rs 23 crore-smog tower located in Connaught Place is not operational despite the fact that the national capital and its neighbouring areas are seeing hazardous air quality levels.

The smog tower has stopped working after the personnel, responsible for its operations, 'locked it' due to non payment of their salary for December 2023 and no written 'job guarantee' from the Delhi government.

Notably, a 13-member team, belonging to a private organisation named Vibgyour Consulting, was given the task of carrying out the operations of the smog tower.

Speaking to India Today TV, Mahipal Bisht, one of the staff members, said, "This tower is under Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) and National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) and our company, Vibgyour Consulting, was operating this tower".

"But in April 2023, operations of the tower were stopped. But after the Supreme Court rebuked the Delhi government in November (2023) to start this tower, we were called by DPCC and on November 8, again the tower was operationalised, but later we were not paid our salary on time and our December salary is not paid yet and above this our company has not got any job confirmation from Delhi government," he added.

"Finally, we only had one option to lock the smog tower," said Bisht.

The staff members also highlighted the dearth of basic facilities, such as drinking water and an accessible toilet.

"Even basic tools like pliers and screwdrivers are not available, and we are also not provided any safety gear", said an electrician named Vivek Uniyal, who was also in the team that was responsible for running the smog tower.

A few members of the team also highlighted that the smog tower was also not working at its full capacity.