Starting next year, the residents of some Chinese cities will be better informed about air quality, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said on Friday.

A network of 496 monitoring stations will start releasing reports about air quality in 74 Chinese cities starting from Jan 1.

The real-time reports will cover six kinds of air pollutants: sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, PM 10 and PM 2.5, which is particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrograms.

PM 2.5 is considered extremely hazardous to health as the particles go deeper into the lungs than larger particles in the air.

"The real-time reports will play a significant role in improving the country's air quality and pollution controls," said Meng Xiaoyan, an engineer at the China National Environmental Monitoring Center.

"The public has the right to know about environmental conditions. The monitoring stations will further satisfy that need."

The air-quality reports will focus on 74 cities from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions, as well as some other municipalities and provincial capitals, according to Meng.

Residents will be able to access the real-time reports and air-quality indices at www.cnemc.cn, the center's website.

The center has also released a smartphone application to access the data.

Some 113 cities will adopt stricter air-quality standards next year, and the standards will be further extended to 138 cities by the end of 2015.

According to Wan Bentai, an engineer at the ministry, the number of air-monitoring stations is now at 1,436, twice as much as in 2010.

A total of 950 million yuan ($152.5 million) has been invested to set up the air-quality monitoring stations nationwide, Wan said.

He added that the country also plans to set up monitoring stations in rural areas. Ninety-six stations are expected to be set up in those areas by the end of 2015.

An increasing number of days with heavy pollution, especially in the summer, has pressured local governments to accelerate pollution-reduction efforts.

Cities nationwide — including metropolises such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou — have been speeding up air pollution control measures and setting up stations to monitor fine particulate matter, said Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs.

According to the Beijing municipal environmental protection bureau, residents in the capital will be informed about air quality through various channels starting on Jan 1.

In addition to the bureau's website, the public will also be able to access air-quality data through the bureau's account on Sina Weibo, a Chinese Twitter-like service, and daily reports on TV and radio.