Project NIPUN, the National Initiative for Promoting Upskilling of Construction Workers, was launched today by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). The project will train over 1 lakh construction employees in new skills and upskilling and give them chances abroad. The programme has three phases: RPL at construction sites, Fresh Skilling by Plumbing and Infrastructure SSC, and International Placement through industries, builders, and contractors.
Industry partners will train 80,000 construction workers on-site.
associations under the MoHUA-branded RPL certification, while 14,000 candidates will obtain new skills through the plumbing and infrastructure Sector Skill Council (SSC). The
Accredited and connected training facilities will teach the NQF-aligned courses. NSDC also wants to place 12,000 individuals in GCC nations including Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission, MoHUA will oversee Project NIPUN (DAY-NULM). It will help line ministries converge. NSDC will oversee training, monitoring, and candidate tracking. Trainees will receive Kaushal Bima (3-year accidental insurance with Rs 2 lakhs coverage), digital skills like cashless transactions and the BHIM app, entrepreneurial orientation, EPF, and BOCW. The project will be monitored by an NSDC-MoHUA project committee chaired by Additional Secretary/Mission Director, DAY-NULM.
"The transformational impact of the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) has definitively reduced the vulnerability of urban poor households by providing upskilling and employment opportunities to urban dwellers, especially the youth," said Shri Hardeep S. Puri, Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs and Petroleum & Natural Gas, at the event. Giving urban workers self-employment and skilled-wage jobs has boosted entrepreneurship. This project will help Nirman personnel become more skilled and adopt future construction industry trends by enhancing their capabilities and skill sets.
Central Vista Avenue will open in a few days, the minister said.
"With the construction industry poised to become the nation's largest employment by 2022, the dependency on technology cannot be disregarded," said MSDE Secretary Shri Rajesh Aggarwal, praising the NSDC-MoHUA alliance. "And MoHUA, along with the support of all our stakeholders, will provide Nirman workers with better job opportunities, improved benefits, and safer work practises, making them torchbearers of not only an Aatmanirbhar Bharat but also playing a pivotal part in transforming India into a skill hub for the rest of the world," says NSDC. The construction industry will be the top employer by 2022 and need 45 million competent workers over the next decade. The National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) and the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI) are industry partners of Project NIPUN and will work with the SSC to identify aspirational construction employment roles for training. About NSC
NSDC, a nodal skill development agency under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Government of India, is a unique public-private partnership (PPP) that intends to catalyse the formation of a broad and high-quality vocational training ecosystem in India. Since 2010, NSDC has trained over 3 crore individuals with 600+ training partners and 10,000 training centres in 600+ districts. NSDC runs the government's key skill development initiatives, including PMKVY and NAPS, through 37 Sector Skill Councils (SSCs). NSDC funds skill-training businesses and organisations. Concessional loans, new financial products, and strategic collaborations enable private-sector skill and capacity expansion.
Housing Ministry
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is the national apex authority for housing and urban issues in India, sponsoring and supporting the policy formulation programme, activities of various Central Ministries, State Governments, and Nodal Authorities, and coordinating and monitoring programmes.