Hanoi will set up 80 air quality monitoring devices throughout the city.

 Illustrative photo

At a meeting with local departments on May 11, the city's chairman Nguyen Duc Chung asked the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to work with the French Embassy to carry out the project.

Chung urged that these automatic systems should start working from September, which will allow local people to check various data on the environment in their area at any time.

"They will also help us to address solutions to the environmental problems of the city," he said.

In addition, in the second stage of the project, the French Embassy will help build a district into a smart city model.

Explaining about the recent rumours that mercury had been found floating in the air above the capital city, director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Nguyen Trong Dong, confirmed that the current monitoring equipment was incapable of detecting mercury so there was no grounds to the information.