PUNE, August 4: The world's most beautiful monument in marble can now hope to have its enchanting beauty preserved. In a bid to give a new lease of life to the waning beauty of the Taj Mahal, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has successfully developed a new technology to reduce the effect of harmful emission of gases by foundries in the vicinity of the monument.The technology will not only arrest further degradation of the exquisite marble structure turning pale yellow due to pollution, but will also prevent the closure of 200-odd foundries in the vicinity of Taj as per the Supreme Court order.
The new technology, called the cokeless cupola technology, has been developed by the National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur. At present nearly all foundries in the country use coke as a natural fuel. The monument is currently facing the danger of losing its external sheen due to the onslaught of gases like sulphur dioxide and hydrogen sulphide emitted by the foundries in thevicinity.
``The new technique does away with the use of coke by using alternative fuels like natural gas thus reducing the emission of polluting gases,'' Dr R A Mashelkar, Director General of CSIR, told The Indian Express.
The first successful testing of the technology was done in a foundry at Agra on May 11. On completion of the test trials, the technology based machinery will be installed in all the 200 foundries in the next few months. Refusing to disclose the exact cost of installation, the director general said the technology is highly cost effective. ``Even the operational cost of these foundries will be lowered to a large extent.''
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
