Agartala: The Tripura government has set up a Construction Workers’ Training Institute (CWTI) in the southern outskirts of Agartala, the first of its kind in the country, under full state sponsorship which has already produced about 150 trained masons and bar-binders who have been trained with all mandatory requirements of quality construction and earthquake-resistant buildings in the state.
Tripura rural development minister, Naresh Jamatia, said that technocrats of Tripura had started CWTI before Prime Minister Modi’s National Skill Development Mission (NSDM) starts functioning, realizing the necessity of qualified masons and bar-binders.
He said both rural and urban areas of Tripura received a tremendous boost in construction and infrastructure development work in the past few years. The construction agencies have been finding it difficult to complete the work with desired quality within the time frame, which insisted on government funding for CWTI.
“The rural development department has taken the endeavor to impart skill development training to at least 480 construction workers per annum to ensure safe and quality construction in the state,” Jamatia said.
According to CWTI principal Indranil Bhowmik, estimates revealed at least 7,000 trained construction workers are required to meet the demand of the state in the next 10 years. Despite deployment of adequate engineers on site, there is a need for trained masons, as they have been doing the work on the ground.
Since Tripura belongs to seismic zone V and is prone to high intensity earthquakes, the state immediately needs construction skills in terms of safety and quality for new constructions as well as for retrofitting or renovating the old buildings as per the recommended code, he said.
“The course curriculum has been designed by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) for ensuring quality and safe buildings for which we are now running two streams – masonry, and bar-binding and steel fixing – at present. Three more courses will start soon – carpentry, plumber and painters to complete a new building,” said vice principal SS Laskar.
“In both masonry and bar-binding workers have three levels of course in the institute, each of three months duration and the other three courses coming up have two levels, three months each, to make them at par with international standards,” Laskar said. Besides providing training, the government is paying them a daily stipend for each working day at Rs 167 along with Rs 28,925 for each of the candidates for three months to cover training cost, lodging and fooding, uniform and tools, he added.
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