Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh is expected to take a final call by December three on a nuclear power plant to be built by a French company in Maharashtra's Jaitapur, which has received the nod of a key green panel.

The proposed plant near Konkan coastal region, which has faced opposition for locals, was given the go ahead by an Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the Environment Ministry last week while stipulating some "stringent" conditions to ensure minimum adverse impact at the site.

Sources said that Ramesh is likely to announce his decision in the matter before he leaves for Cancun in Mexico from December 3 to 11 to attend the UN meet on climate change and before French President Nicolas Sarkozy's visit to India which is tentatively scheduled for December 6.

The agreement for the proposed project which will have six units of 1,650 MW each will be signed between French company, Areva and Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) in Sarkozy's presence.

Notwithstanding the opposition to the plant by locals led by Konkan Bachao Samiti, the project is being billed as the first fruit of India's civil nuclear agreement and the Nuclear Power Corporation is expecting the first unit of the project to be commissioned in 2017-18.

The EAC had recommended clearance to the project after discussing various issues such as safety elements including design safeguards against the dangers of radioactivity.

The panel also considered the Environment Impact Assessment Report prepared by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) after the public hearing at the site.

Sources said that the EAC has granted clearance to the project on the condition that safety related issues area addressed and displaced people are adequately rehabilitated.