China is seeking to cap Beijing population at 23 million by 2020, by taking aggressive measures to cure the "big city disease”.

Wang Anshun, the mayor of Beijing said that the Chinese capital will take measures to ensure that the city’s population does not exceed 21.8 million by the end of 2015. The population of Beijing was 21.5 million by the end of 2014. It is estimated that 12.8 million were living in the six urban districts.

Anshun was speaking at a meeting during which Beijing's economic situation in the first half of this year was being analyzed. Due the fast growing population, the city is facing severe resource and environment pressures such as water resource shortages, air pollution, traffic congestion and other problems.

The mayor said the city will take innovative measures to deal with overpopulation, traffic congestion, and environment pollution. According to an official announcement, the Chinese government has already announced plans to build a satellite city beside Beijing to cap the city's population to 23 million.

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region's Coordinated Development Planning Outline has estimated that Beijing should be within 23 million by 2020, while urban population ratio should be 15% lower than that of 2014.

"Beijing will take a series of function dispersal measures to prevent new population gathering, making sure the permanent resident population is within 21.8 million by the end of this year. The municipal government and all the districts and counties of Beijing have signed the letter of responsibility to fulfill the goal," Wang said.

-Sumana