Chandigarh, Nov. 17 -- Over four years after an air purification tower was installed at Transport Chowk, Sector 26, with tall claims of cleaning the city's air, the Chandigarh administration has finally ordered its removal, but only after spending around Rs.12 lakh on electricity bills and months after a study concluded that the system was largely ineffective. The Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee (CPCC) has now directed the private firm that installed the 24-metre structure to dismantle it immediately. The UT administration has also disconnected its power supply. CPCC had been paying nearly Rs.25,000 per month towards its electricity use, leading to a Rs.12-lakh bill over four years. The tower, inaugurated on the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies on September 7, 2021, was projected as a high-tech solution to combat rising air pollution. The company had claimed the tower would clean air within a 500-metre radius, cut pollutants such as PM2.5, PM10, nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide by up to 50% and lower ambient temperature while operating 18 hours a day. The tower functioned by drawing in polluted air, treating it with a mist-spraying system inside, and releasing filtered air. However, a third-party evaluation by the National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR) in June this year found the tower effective only in a very limited area - far below the performance promised by the company. Despite this finding, the administration continued to bear the electricity costs for months as the firm kept seeking extensions for dismantling the tower. "A three-month deadline was given in July, which ended in October, but the firm kept asking for more time. Now we have directed them to remove the tower immediately and disconnected the power supply," a senior CPCC official said. While the installation cost was borne by the company, the mounting electricity bill was paid by the administration. Treated as a pilot project, due to heavy traffic load and high vehicular emissions around Transport Chowk, the tower was planned to be replicated at six more major intersections. Officials have now confirmed that no further air purifier towers will be installed in the city. Meanwhile, the air pollution levels in Chandigarh have only worsened since 2021. Monitoring under the National Clean Air Programme showed PM10 levels rising from 116 micrograms per cubic metre in 2022-23 and 2023-24 to 121 micrograms per cubic metre in 2024-25, with AQI readings slipping sharply during winter....