Ministry of Road Transport & Highways and MSDE sign MoU for skilling drivers

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has taken up a major initiative to set up driver training institutes across India. The objective of the skill based training program is to train the drivers by offering them a stipend to compensate with the loss of wages during the training program. Driver Training Institutes will be set up in compliance with the skill development framework to impart professional training on par with global standards. Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has signed an MoU with Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship on 5th May 2017 as a first step in this direction.

This is a major step towards achieving the aim of Hon Prime Minister to have skilled drivers across the country. Ministry of Road Transport & Highways and Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship today signed MoU. This MoU will help to meet the rise in expectation of demand for skilled workforce in the Automotive, Construction and Logistics Sector, especially for trained and certified commercial drivers, in heavy and light motor vehicle segments and for highway construction workers. Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy, MoS (I/C), Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and Shri Pon Radhakrishan Union Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways and Shipping today exchanged the MoU in presence of Shri Nitin Gadkari Union Minister Road Transport & Highways and Shipping.

Under this MoU Ministry of Road Transport & Highways will allocate budget of Rs 1 Crore for the grant component for setting up each Driver Training Institute. This ministry will also allocate budget for stipend to trainees to compensate wage loss during the period of training. The stipend will be limited to Rs 15000 per trainee for whole duration of the course. The stipend will be transferred to the accounts of the trainees on Aadhar-linked DBT basis. The ministry will help NSDC in its Training Need Analysis, design of Training, Implementation and Evaluation of skill training program.

In the function held in Vigyan Bhawan, Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy, said, “Our Prime Minister has given us a vision to make India the Skill capital of the world. Prime Minister has expressed that trained drivers make our lives easy and we need to focus on skilling of drivers. This is a big step forward in achieving this vision of Prime Minister. We will set up 100 Driver Training Institutes to skill drivers and make them ready for huge opportunity.”

This partnership is expected to result in providing training to youth for various skills like driving heavy commercial vehicles and different trades connected to highway. Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship through NSDC will also train highway construction workers, technicians, supervisors, and operators to make them industry ready. It will upgrade the skills and certify existing workers in the Roads & Highways Construction sector as to sustain India’s growth plans in this sector.

Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship has successfully inaugurated three driver training institutes. The institutes are successfully running in Chhapra, Coimbatore and Sikar. There has been laying foundation of two institutes and they will be up and running soon. This MoU will surely give us big boost to fulfil demand of good and trained drivers.

(This article is based on a press release from Government of India)