To ensure the skill capabilities engaged in the National Highway construction, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will initiate a coordinative skill development and capacity building program, in line with the growing scale, complexity and quality requirements of the expanding National Highway network in the country.
The initiative will focus on upgrading skills of the construction workers to meet emerging standards of quality control in ongoing projects, as well as to strengthen capabilities for maintenance of developed National Highway assets.
In first of its kind exercise, NHAI has undertaken a detailed mapping of the origin of construction labour engaged in the National Highway projects. Data has been collected up to the village level to identify regions from where workers travel to work at the construction sites. Based on this assessment, key labour-origin clusters have been identified in49 districts in eight States that include West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. This data-driven approach will help NHAI to facilitate targeted skill training closer to the worker location leading to improved accessibility, participation and long-term retention of trained manpower.
In order to establish a structured and sustainable framework for skill development and comprehensive training, NHAI has identified prominent local institutions such as Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), diploma colleges and engineering colleges in these regions and will be engaged as potential training centres.
The initiative also envisages upskilling experienced workers with seven to eight years of experience and would develop them as ‘master trainers’ to train fresh manpower. Additionally, respective NHAI field officers will serve as nodal officers for implementation of the program at the regional level.
The program will be implemented in partnership with volunteering National Highway construction companies, with NHAI providing seed funding and participating construction companies contributing under their CSR commitments. Also, a dedicated skill training website will be developed, which will act as a central repository for capsule training videos and course material to support continuous learning and wider outreach.