Beijing officials are planning to create a network of ventilation corridors to help address the notorious air pollution in the city by easing up air flow and blowing away pollutants and smog.

According to Xinhua, the plan calls for putting up five 500-meter wide ventilation corridors that will be linked to a network of auxiliary corridors, which measure about 80 meters wide, the deputy head of Beijing urban planning committee, Wang Fei revealed. The corridors will connect the city's parks, highways, rivers, lakes and low building blocks.

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Aside from the initial plan to erect primary and secondary ventilation corridors, the city will also add smaller ones. All building in these zones will be strictly controlled, and any impediment will be eradicated eventually.

Other Chinese cities like Shanghai and Fuzhou have been constructing ventilation corridors to get rid of pollution. "Ventilation corridors can improve wind flow through a city so that wind can blow away heat and pollutants, relieving urban heat island effect and air pollution," Wang said.

Air pollution has become a major problem of Beijing with the city experiencing its heaviest smog in the months of November and December last year - partly because of winter heating.

Since then, the city has devised a number of measures to stop air pollution. It has started using cleaner energy instead of coal fire power plants and has shut down or reduced the production of over 2000 polluting establishments.

According to data from the Ministry of Environmental Protection, air quality around the city has only marginally improved. In 2015, it reported 186 days of "up to par" air quality, a 14-day increase from the previous year. Furthermore, the annual PM 2.5 average in Beijing is at 80.6 micrograms per cubic meter, a 6.2 percent year-on-year increase. 

TagsBeijing, ventilation corridors, air pollution