Beijing To Build Ventilation Corridors To Reduce Air Pollution

Beijing seeks to create a network of ventilation corridors. Its principal aim is to build air circulating points in the Chinese suffocating capital, which may then help to lift the smog.

Beijing authorities declared on 20 February their will to build a net of five hundred meters wide corridors in order to dissipate the smog, this mist of pollution that asphyxiates the city, says Xinhua agency.

These halls would be created by linking parks, rivers lakes, highways, and low housing sites, explained urban development co-director Wang Fei. The circulation of the air in the city should be significantly improved through this measure "and the heat along with the pollution should disperse", he said.

How to proceed? The construction of these corridors would be highly controlled in the target zones and any obstacle would be suppressed, replied Wang Fei.

A total of five hundred meters wide great halls would be created, linking the Northern and Southern parts of the city.

Along with eighty meters wide secondary corridors. Will this measure be efficient enough while Beijing is facing one of the most polluted winters of its history?

"That won't solve the problem", says South China Morning Post. The root of the problem must be addressed, by reducing gas emissions and particularly the heat and the microparticles.

"The smog is a permanent problem for North of China. And it is rather a political problem than a technological one", says the Hong Kong newspaper.

"Until very recently, It has been very difficult for the authorities to admit how serious this situation is".

The authorities have increased efforts to reduce air pollution after the city’s first "red alerts" in December last year, when hazardous smog engulfed the city.

Beijing will close 2,500 small polluting firms this year as part of efforts to combat pollution, Xinhua reported last month.