NEW DELHI: The Central Public Works Department (CPWD) has set a separate target for all 17 regional offices to upskill workers in the next year as part of a nationwide drive to enhance the capabilities of its workforce.
The move follows an announcement by Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal to expand training initiatives for workers engaged in CPWD projects. Targets have been fixed with directions to link the progress to the Annual Performance Assessment Report (APAR) of officials to ensure their accountability.
The agency plans to train 30,000 workers by 2026-27 and for the current financial year, the goal is to train 12,500. Each regional office has been asked to plan a timeline to achieve the target and inform the Directorate at the earliest.
“The target should be given CE/SE (Chief Engineers/ Superintending Engineers) wise along with name of the work. ..the training details is also to be entered in PIMS (Personnel Information Management System) portal, the same should also be field immediately ...The MoHUA (ministry of housing and urban affairs) has directed to link the skilled training targets with APAR of the concerned officer so that training of the skilling is to be carried out without fail,” read a circular sent to all regional units.
The department has also mandated that training details be updated on the Personnel Information Management System (PIMS) portal and the Project Management System (PMS), a web-based platform to manage and monitor construction projects.
Among the 17 regions, four key units have been assigned significantly higher training targets due to the scale and importance of their projects. These include Additional Director General-Border (ADG-B), Special Director General-Planning and Regional Development (SDG-PRND), ADG-Delhi, and ADG-Mumbai.
The ADG-B, which oversees infrastructure projects such as border fencing, roads, and lighting systems along the Indo-Bangladesh and Indo-Pak borders, has been assigned the highest target--1,555 workers for this year, rising to 3,900 workers by 2026-27.
In Delhi, the two CPWD divisions will train 1,500 workers this year and 3,600 next year. The SDG-PRND is responsible for administrative functions in Delhi, including plantation drives and the promotion of innovative construction technologies. The ADG-Mumbai will train 1,250 workers in the current year and 3,000 in the next, as part of efforts to boost the skilled workforce.
Highlighting the need of skilled workers in the construction industry particularly to achieve desired quality standards, the minister, last week, said that the Department would increase the number of workers to be trained in the next financial year from 10,000 to 25,000.
Earlier, the Department (CPWD) has asked its concerned officer to ensure that at least 20 percent skilled or semi-skilled workforce is engaged for any project. The secretary (MoHUA) has been insisting on deployment of skilled workers in CPWD workers for timely completion of the project and also quality construction.