A photo of Changsha under a blue sky and white clouds [Photo/Changsha Evening News]

According to the Changsha environmental protection bureau, all the nine air quality monitoring stations in Changsha reported good air quality on Dec 16, Changsha Evening News reported.

By Dec 15, 2014, Changsha had 220 days of good air quality, 26 days more than that during the same period in 2013, with the ratio of good air quality days rising from 55.6 percent to 63 percent, an increase of 7.4 percentage points.

Changsha has made up a set of air pollution control plans this year, covering 138 projects under nine categories such as pollution management in major industries, closing outdated production capacity, and greening and ecology construction.The total investments for the projects will hit around 7.756 billion yuan ($1.25 billion).

The city had weeded out 28,240 yellow label cars (heavily-polluting vehicles) and old cars during the last 11 months. It will publish an announcement on traffic restrictions on yellow label cars in late December and the driving curbs will take effect from the beginning of 2015.

"Changsha will strengthen the prevention of motor vehicle emission pollution and accelerate the elimination of yellow label cars, to make sure that all the remaining 39,000 yellow label cars will have disappeared in 2017. It will also promote public transportation, aiming to raise the public transit trip contribution rate (the rate of residents choosing public transportation rather than private cars or taxis) up to 45 percent in 2017," said a principal of the environmental protection bureau.

Apart from these, the law enforcement agency will strengthen supervision on construction sites, to ensure the implementation of dust emission control measures, including covering bare soil on sites and road hardening