New Delhi [India], February 4 (ANI): With an objective to enhance the capabilities and skilling of workers engaged in the National Highway construction, NHAI will initiate a structured skill development and capacity building program that will be in line with the growing scale, complexity and quality requirements of the expanding National Highway network in the country.

According to a statement from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the initiative aims to upgrade construction workers' skills to meet emerging quality-control standards in ongoing projects and to strengthen their ability to maintain developed National Highway assets.

In the first-of-its-kind exercise, NHAI has undertaken a detailed mapping of the origins of construction labour engaged in National Highway projects.

Data has been collected up to the village level to identify regions from which workers travel to construction sites. Based on this assessment, key labour-origin clusters have been identified in 49 districts across eight States: West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha.

This data-driven approach will help NHAI facilitate targeted skill training closer to workers' locations, 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 developing them as 'master trainers' to train fresh manpower. Additionally, the respective NHAI field officers will serve as nodal officers for program implementation at the regional level.

The program will be implemented in partnership with volunteer 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 as a central repository for capsule training videos and course materials to support continuous learning and broader outreach.

The initiative will not only strengthen the workforce's skill base but also significantly enhance their employability. Also, creating a pool of trained and skilled workers will improve the quality and efficiency of National Highway construction while promoting skill development and livelihood opportunities in remote regions.

With this initiative, NHAI aims to build a skilled, resilient and future-ready workforce to support quality assurance and sustainable maintenance of the expanding National Highway infrastructure across the country. (ANI)