The Oberoi hotel will open on January 1 after a complete renovation. Among other things, it has installed large capacity air purifiers in over 40 locations within the premises.
New Delhi: The iconic Oberoi hotel, which reopens on New Year’s Day after a complete renovation, has an added attraction – it promises to offer the cleanest air in one of the world’s most polluted cities.
The hotel has installed a four-layered air purification system that aims to substantially bring down particulate matter (PM) the national capital has become notorious for, ThePrint has learnt.
Silki Sehgal, vice-president (global corporate communications) of The Oberoi, said the hotel has installed “large capacity air purifiers at over 40 locations within the hotel premises”.
BlueAir Pro XL, one of the highest capacity air purifiers available in the market, claims to be 99.7 per cent effective in cleaning pollutants in a room of up to 1,180 sq ft in size.
The Oberoi’s new suites, however, measure up to 3,500 sq ft.
“There are four levels of filtration at the hotel, including one level to remove harmful gases like nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide from the air, and three levels for particulate filtration,” said Barun Aggarwal, CEO of BreathEasy, an indoor air quality solution provider who is aware of the technology.
Sehgal said a “substantial investment” was made for the purchase and effective incorporation of air purifiers into the hotel’s overall HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning) systems.
“The aim of the hotel is to bring down the air quality index to single digits, if possible under 10 or 12,” said Lisa Alam Shah, executive director of travel firm Micato India, who got a tour of the property Friday.
Cities such as Stockholm (Sweden), Grimmerhaugen (Norway), Altesland (Germany) and Derby (Australia) have AQI levels in the range of 1-10.
Delhi’s AQI, on the other hand, touched 999 on 7 November – the highest the machines are able to read.
“The challenge is that very few people truly understand air quality. They’re probably saying the PM 2.5 levels will be under 10, which is not the same as AQI,” Aggarwal said.
“PM 2.5 of 10 micro grams per cubic meter (µg/m³) is actually about a 45 AQI. If you’re saying the AQI is under 10, then you’re looking at a PM 2.5 level of 2 or 3 µg/m³, which in a place like Delhi is really difficult to achieve and more importantly maintain,” he added.
Sehgal said that while it is not possible to give an accurate figure of what air quality they will achieve, the hotel “shall commence operating the entire air purification system on 30 or 31 December and expect it to stabilise by mid-January”.
While bad air quality is likely to hurt tourism in the capital in the peak season, The Oberoi is confident that it will see a decent footfall in its new avatar.