BEIJING - A subsidiary administrative center due to be built in suburban Tongzhou as part of plans to ease overcrowding in Beijing will be completed in 2017, the city's vice mayor said on Thursday.

"Construction will start this year," said Li Shixiang at a press conference.

Building the center in Tongzhou, about 40 minutes' drive from the center of the Chinese capital, is one of several moves to cure "urban ills" including overpopulation, traffic congestion and smog. It forms part of the broader plan to integrate Beijing with neighboring Tianjin Municipality and Hebei Province.

Tongzhou has 870,000 registered residents, and its population will be kept under two million once the center is completed, said Li.

To complement the new facilities there, the government is planning hundreds of supporting projects in infrastructure, education, culture and healthcare.

"It will not only be an administrative center, but also a center for business, culture and tourism," Li said, adding that 86 of the projects are already under construction.