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Land acquisition delays setting up of TTCs, Marine tech intt


Published : 10 Sep 2021 09:24 PM | Updated : 11 Sep 2021 12:13 AM

Land acquisition delays establishment of 40 Technical Training Centers in 40 upazilas and one Institute of Marine Technology in Chattogram, forcing project to seek time extension.

The government has undertaken a few projects in the last few years to create employment opportunities for the unemployed by developing skills through training as per the demand of local and foreign labor market. 

“Establishment of 40 Technical Training Centers in 40 upazilas and 1 Institute of Marine Technology in Chattogram is one of the projects undertaken by the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training under the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment to facilitate training programmes for workers.

Although the construction work of most of the technical training centers has been nearly 80 percent completed, due to land acquisition issues the construction work of the Institute of Marine Technology is yet to begin.   

Former Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives (LGRD) Minister Engineer Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain undertook this large-scale project when he was in charge of the Ministry of Expatriate’ Welfare and Overseas Employment.

The project was approved by the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) in November, 2020. The original implementation period of the project was scheduled for 2016-2022.

However, according to the former project director Md Mansurul Alam the implementation period may need to be extended for two more years due to a shortage in budget allocation this year and as the construction work of IMT in Chattogram has not even started yet.   

He told Bangladesh Post “The land in Chattogram has been handed over to the ministry. Public Works Department (PWD) has already conducted a digital survey and soil test. An estimate would be prepared tenders would be invited as soon as the architecture department finalizes a design.”     

According to the progress report of the project till May 2021, the overall progress of project implementation stands at 67 percent. 

The objectives of the projects include increasing the productivity of industrial enterprises and improving product quality by increasing the supply of skilled manpower.

The target of the project is to provide training to 46140 trainees every year in 10 trades in 40 technical training centers (6/7 in each TTC) and 565 trainees in eight trades in the IMT.

Ratan Kumar Ghosh, the current Director of the project told Bangladesh Post that the main challenge faced while implementing these kinds of projects is land acquisition. 

“The time period in acquiring lands varied location-wise. This is because the project includes the establishment of technical training centers in 40 different locations. It didn’t take much time to start the construction work where the land was acquired quickly,” he said. 

When asked about the inauguration of these technical training centers, he said that the training centers of Faridpur’s Alfadanga and Rangpur’s Pirganj will be inaugurated within the next two months.