The Hindu Business Line : Infrastructure cos eye education space to tackle manpower crunch

New Delhi, Jan. 8 Infrastructure firms are looking to enter the education sector, prompted by a serious shortage of trained executives to oversee their capacity expansion plans.

Power major NTPC Ltd and its State-owned counterpart Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) are looking to come together to set up engineering institutes to cater specifically to the needs of the power sector.

Private sector major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is also looking to start an institute of project management, with the aim of developing managers with specialised skills spanning the engineering, procurement, construction and manufacturing sectors.

“NTPC and BHEL are looking at coming together to set up technical education institutes aimed at the creation of a pool of skilled manpower. These (institutes) would essentially be modelled on the lines of the facility set up by ISRO to meet the needs of the Indian space programme,” the Minister of State for Power and Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh, told Business Line.

ISRO example

ISRO had recently spearheaded the setting up of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology with the objective of offering bachelor’s degree in space technology with specialisation in avionics and aerospace engineering.

L&T is in the running to set up a specialised institute and has sought permission from the Gujarat Government for setting an engineering college in Vadodara. The institute could be based at L&T’s Knowledge City, which is coming up on 112 acres on the outskirts of the city, industry sources said.

According to a recent joint study by Crisil and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, around 20 lakh trained personnel would be required for meeting the power capacity addition targets set for the Eleventh and the Twelfth Five Year Plan periods.

“Although Indian educational institutions generate a large number of engineers, it is a challenge to attract them to the power generation sector given the multiple options available in other lucrative areas,” the study said.

The Centre hopes to add nearly 1,61,000 MW of generation capacity during the Eleventh and the Twelfth Plan periods to be in a position to provide “power-for-all” by 2012.

Other Players

Other utilities in the sector have also taken a lead to tackle the manpower crunch. Tata Power, Lanco Infratech, Jindal Steel & Power, Reliance Energy, NHPC Ltd and Damodar Valley Corporation are among the power utilities that have chalked out plans to establish new industrial training institutes or refurbish existing ones in the employment catchment areas of their upcoming generation projects to tackle the manpower crunch in the power sector.