Cars will be allowed on the road only on alternate days during red alerts for air pollution in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, under measures the city government approved on Monday.

In addition, 30 percent of government cars will remain garaged if air pollution hits serious levels, and key enterprises will have to cut 30 percent of their emissions during a red alert, the highest level.

Under the alert system approved on Monday, a red alert will be issued when the air quality index is forecast to exceed 300 at more than half of the city's 10 monitoring stations.