SRINAGAR: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will engage 500 interns every year and offer them a monthly stipend of Rs 20,000 under its newly launched internship programme, the government informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
Replying to an unstarred question, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Jairam Gadkari said the internship programme has been launched along with a dedicated internship portal in collaboration with the Department of Higher Education and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
The minister said the programme aims to build technical and managerial capacity among youth by providing structured, field-based and analytical learning opportunities through ongoing and upcoming highway development projects across the country.
As per the details shared in Parliament, students pursuing Bachelor’s or Master’s degrees in Civil Engineering will be engaged in areas such as highway project planning, design, traffic and transport planning, construction supervision, and operations and maintenance.
Students from other engineering streams, including Computer Science, IT, Electronics, Instrumentation, Data Science, as well as disciplines such as Finance and Law, will be engaged in analytics and programme management support, tolling operations, IT and artificial intelligence applications, finance, land acquisition, environment, legal affairs and human resources.
The internship programme will be offered in three formats. Winter internships will be of one month, summer internships will last two months, while students in the final semester of their courses will be eligible for internships of six months’ duration.
The government said NHAI has proposed to engage interns under the supervision of Project Directors at Project Implementation Units and technical divisions at NHAI headquarters, under the respective Chief General Managers or General Managers.
The minister added that the programme will provide hands-on exposure in project planning, construction, maintenance, asset management, safety and the use of advanced technologies, enabling interns to gain practical experience in infrastructure development and management.
