Millions of trees that cover an area of 1 million mu (66,667 hectares) will be planted in Beijing in the next three years, according to a top government official.

Starting from March, the city will begin planting trees between its fifth and sixth ring roads, on 200,000 mu of land this year, said Chen Gang, the city's Deputy Mayor, at the 5th session of the 13th Beijing Municipal Congress on Thursday.

Some villages will be smartened up, and desolate waste land will be reused to make room for the forestation, which is estimated to take up an expanded area of 1 million mu by the end of 2014, he said.

A series of measures combating the city's serious environmental pollution were set forth at the meeting. Besides the ambitious forestation plan, Beijing will also promote more stringent emission standards, improve fuel oil quality, and strengthen the control of dust at construction sites and so on.

Beijing last week reported a decline in PM2.5 density during the past decade. The number – 70 to 80 micrograms per cubic meter – is still double the standard 35 micrograms set by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, though.

The city's latest anti-pollution efforts are being directed at updating air quality monitoring. Sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and PM10 in the city are being monitored by 27 stations of the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center which releases and updates the data hourly on its website and micro blog.