XI'AN - A total of 2.79 million people in Shaanxi province will be relocated from mountainous areas that are prone to poverty and vulnerable to geological disasters during the next 10 years, according to a plan by the provincial government.

The relocation and resettlement project will affect 2.4 million people living in southern Shaanxi and the poverty reduction project will impact 392,000 people living in the Baiyu mountainous area in northern parts of the province. Both programs will start this year, Shaanxi Governor Zhao Zhengyong told China Daily.

The number of people set to be relocated is far larger than the 1.5 million people who were moved because of the Three Gorges Dam hydro-electric project.