New Delhi : Skill Development in the port & maritime sector is an opportunity to improve the country’s coastal areas and be the leading supplier of skilled youth in the sector globally, the Shipping Ministry under the Sagarmala programme, will impart skill development to 1,500 people in every coastal district of the country in three years, said Shipping Secretary Gopal Krishna while inaugurating a workshop on “Skill Development in the Port and Maritime Sector” here on Friday.
He said, training of 500 students per-year-per-district was being undertaken by the Ministry for the next three years through Sagarmala with Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gramin Kaushal Yojana (DDU GKY) (MoRD) – convergence for Port and Maritime sector. Besides, respective state governments were issuing Expression of Interest (EoI) for empaneling training partners.
The Ministry has completed skill gap studies of 21 coastal districts in eight states and three Union Territories (Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep) and currently its implementation is underway. Project approvals for Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal have been done. For the first phase, training has commenced for 2028 students, 1917 have been trained and 1128 have been placed. 92 students are under training in Odisha, he added.
Speaking on the occasion, Sh. Bishnu Pada Ray, Member of Parliament from Andaman and Nicobar lauded the efforts made by the Ministry of Shipping. Project approvals for Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal have been done.
Additionally, under the Ministry of Shipping’s flagship Sagarmala Programme a world class Center of Excellence in Maritime and Ship Building (CEMS) is being set up in partnership with Siemens and Indian Register of Shipping (IRS) at a cost of INR 766 crore. It will have campuses at Vishakhapatnam and Mumbai and will train 10,512 students per year.
The CEMS aims to become an international nodal Centre in South Asia, attracting students from neighboring countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia for skill development in the Port and Maritime sector. Partial operationalization of CEMS is expected to start by end of June 2018 and complete operationalization is expected by September 2018.
In order to improve Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) in ship breaking yards in Alang, Bhavnagar, Gujarat, a mandatory 12-day Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) training for all entry level workers has been undertaken. So far 5011 workers have been trained in OSH. The course has been reviewed by DG FASLI, Ministry of Labour and third party certification for the training is under consideration. For Maritime Logistics, a Multi-skill Development Centre for Maritime Logistics is being set up in Uran near JNPT Mumbai.This centre in collaboration with Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship will provide for entry level skilled workforce for maritime logistics.On this occasion a testimonial booklet highlighting the success stories of trainees trained in Phase -1 of the Sagarmala-DDU GKY convergence program was released by the dignitaries. The Ministry of Shipping also released skill gap studies for 21 coastal districts of India.
