Bullet train:33 NHSRCL employees complete language, culture course in Japan; 60 more to go this year

Thirty Three employees of the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), received certificates Friday from the Japan Foundation for successfully completing the Japanese language and culture learning training programme as part of the cooperation between Japan and India for the bullet train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

Last year 35 NHSRCL employees received certification for the similar training programme, a statement from the high speed corporation said.

"The high-speed rail technology is being adopted from Japanese Shinkansen train technology, hence there is a need of inter-country exchanges between the officials of two countries, which would be facilitated by proficiency in Japanese language and empathetic understanding of their culture. Similar course would continue to be organised for all the employees of NHSRCL," the statement said.

More than 87 employees have received training in Japan in various fields like station area development, customer centric approach in addition to Shinkansen technology and in operations and maintenance.

"NHSRCL employees are being trained in Japan for the right amount of exposure required for skill development and bringing in the right mind-set of safety and punctuality at all levels in the organisation. Two more batches comprising 60 employees are scheduled to receive similar training this year. The training institute of NHSRCL in Vadodara has also started functioning," the release said.

As per the estimation by the Japanese, the project requires around 4,000 personnel under several categories such as locomotive drivers, guards, station staff, operation control centre staff, maintenance personnel, signal maintainers and electrical staff.

There will be a big depot at Sabarmati for periodic overhaul of the trains, while a small depot at Thane will be built for weekly and monthly maintenance. Around 20,000-25,000 persons would be required for construction of the project.

NHSRCL will also give preference to job applicants who have Japanese language proficiency. The proficiency shall be evaluated based on the qualification acquired through Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) N-1 to N-5.

However, candidates with N-3 level of Japanese language proficiency will be required initially. The recruitment will be undertaken in next one to two years.