Govt eyes railway facilities to conduct skill development programmes

Rajiv Pratap Rudy, MoS for Skill Development, says Railways has great potential to partner and incentivise skill development

The government is in the process of selecting certain railway stations to conduct skill development programmes at their facilities.

Minister of State for Skill Development (Independent charge) Rajiv Pratap Rudy said the Railways has great potential to partner and incentivise skill development.

"So, we have had a major partnership with Railways. We are going to select a few stations. The process is on and skill development is going to start. We have started rolling it out. In a couple of months, we will find some stations functioning like that," Rudy told PTI here.

The Indian Railways and the Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Ministry have signed an MoU for the former to provide space and manpower to carry out skill development programmes across the country.

"The idea is to use the capacity of these railway stations by using the spare space available there for virtual training like classrooms, for soft skills to connect them to the world; or use the infrastructure.

"Railways has the largest construction capacity, so through IRCON, to train their workers, to do recognition of prior learning for these skilled manpower," Rudy said.

On the partnership with Indian Railways, he noted that it has the largest infrastructure in the country including about 6,0000 railway stations across the country and a 43,000 km optical fibre network.

"There are about 6,000 railway stations out of which 5,000 railway stations are those in which one or less trains stop. So, these three things are there with each and every railway station in this country.

"One, they have an infrastructure which means a shed or a building with water and sanitation facility. Two, they have dedicated electricity network; and thirdly which is not there in any other location, is the optical fibre network which is 43,000 km," he said.

The railway infrastructure is also located in inaccessible hinterland where substantial population of the country lives, he said.