In a first of its kind exercise, the authority has mapped the origin of construction labour to the village level to identify regions from which workers travel to sites. Key labour origin clusters were identified in 49 districts across eight states including West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. This data driven approach is intended to facilitate targeted training closer to worker locations to improve accessibility, participation and retention of trained personnel.

To establish a sustainable training framework, the authority has identified local institutions such as Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), diploma colleges and engineering colleges in these regions as potential training centres. The programme envisages upskilling experienced workers with seven to eight years of experience and developing them as master trainers to teach fresh manpower, while respective NHAI field officers will act as nodal officers for regional implementation. Training will focus on practical skills and quality control standards relevant to maintenance.

Implementation will proceed with volunteering national highway construction companies, with NHAI providing seed funding and participating firms contributing under their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) commitments. A dedicated skill training website will be created as a central repository for capsule training videos and course material to support continuous learning and wider outreach. The initiative is expected to strengthen employability, create a pool of trained workforce, improve construction quality and efficiency and promote livelihoods in remote regions, thereby building a resilient and future ready workforce to support sustainable maintenance of the expanding highway infrastructure.