Nuclear power 'dependable, clean' energy option: PM

A hospital and deer and herbal parks are also to come up in Gorakhpur, which is also to benefit from better road connectivity and skill development programmes.  

Singh congratulated the officials of the Nuclear Power Corporation and and Atomic Energy Department for the project.  

A total of 1,503 acres of land was acquired for the plant, out of which the major share of 1,313 acres belongs to Gorakhpur village.

The entire land was acquired from 847 families with approximately Rs 450 crore having been paid in compensation, an official spokesman said.  

The project, in the pipeline since 2009, had faced resistance from locals and some environmental activists.  Principal opposition party INLD, too, had raised safety concerns over the project.

Former Army chief Gen (retd) VK Singh, AAP leader Prashant Bhushan and yoga guru Ramdev were among those who had visited Fatehabad to lend support to the anti-nuclear plant campaign.  But the landowners eventually accepted the compensation package offered for the land acquisition.