Hate the odd-even car plan? Here's a tower to make India pollution-free

The world might be debating effective ways to tackle pollution but Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde offers an incentive that's hard to beat. Roosegaarde has created a 'Smog Free Tower', a seven-metre high tower with a metal façade that sucks in pollution and emits clean air. As a Kickstarter reward for funding his project, Roosegaarde offers diamond rings embedded with black soot, created by compressing the carbon absorbed by his tower. The designer is in talks with Chinese officials to install his tower in Beijing, the city which spurred him to come up with the idea. And if all goes according to plan, Roosegaarde's tower could also make its way to India.



The designer is talking to government authorities about a possible location for it in Mumbai. Roosegaarde's initial research suggests that the Oval Maidan might be one. "After being in Mumbai for a year, the tower can be shifted to another city, perhaps Delhi," said Roosegaarde who was a speaker at the TEDxGateway conclave in Mumbai recently.

The diamond ring reward, which was sold to 16,000 donors, funded the entire cost of creating the tower. "There's been a high demand for the ring so we plan to create a product range of pendants, cuff links and even awards," said Roosegaarde.