Government makes road training certificate must for engineers of private companies
New Delhi: With an objective to improve the quality of roads as well as fast-tracking the construction of national highways (NHs), the government has made it mandatory for the engineers of consultant companies for NHs construction to take training from the government-approved institution like Indian Academy of Highway Engineers (IAHE).
The decision in this regard has been taken to avoid any embarrassment to the government over poor performance of roads due to faulty detailed project report (DPR) that led to delays in environment clearance and land acquisition, etc.
According to an official communiqué, the guidelines in this regard is to be effective from April 1, 2023 and only those engineers to be considered deemed fit for DPR preparation who would have the training certificate from IAHE.
The key objective behind the decision is to improve the quality of construction of highways, bridges and tunnels and completion of the projects within the stipulated time frame. Also, the capacity building of engineers and technical staff belonging to the private sector would create a pool of trained engineers.
As per a senior government official, the instructions in this regard have been issued to all central as well as state governments by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) on August 29.
It's worth mentioning that the government is very much dependent on private consultants for the preparation of detailed project reports (DPR) of national highway projects, feasibility reports of bridges and tunnel projects as well as pre-construction activities and construction works.
The training has been made compulsory for highway and pavement engineer, geo-technical engineer, transport engineer, bridge-tunnel senior engineer, senior survey engineer, etc.
As there are 30 different types of training programmes, the MoRTH has made it mandatory for private consultants to take training on three subjects after every two years.
The private consultants will have to go through a three-phased training schedule which includes 15-day road safety audit certificate, 16-day training for quality control-material testing and a three-day training programme related to collapse of bridges, tunnels, etc.
As per the official notification, the cost of training would be borne by the private company and it will be mandatory for engineers of consultant companies to mention the above training in their resume.
