The shortage of skilled welders is so acute in India that project contractors have imported welding and cutting operators from China, Russia & East European countries.
The shortage of skilled welders is so acute in India that project contractors have imported welding and cutting operators from China, Russia & East European countries. It is estimated that around 10,000 to 20,000 welders have been imported so far.
“Our country is in dire need of overhaul of the current practices and must embrace and adopt new technologies to ensure the 12th plan growth targets,” said R. Srinivasan, president of The Indian Institute of Welding (IIW).
“IIW has petitioned the Prime Minister’s Office and Rajiv Pratap Rudy (Union minister for skill development) about shortfall in availability of skilled welders and gas cutters across the nation. Growth-led increased job openings and replacing the retiring workforce (over 2015-2022) accounts for a shortage 1.2 million welding professionals including welders, cutters, fitters, equipment operators, and also engineers and inspectors.”
He said the 12th Plan target for adding 90,000 MW power generation capacities and creating new construction assets of Rs 52 lakh crores may all get derailed for India’s lack of sufficient skilled workers. So will the national mission of building 20 kilometres of new highways each day which is already falling behind and the ‘Make-in-India’ campaign as there is shortage of skilled labour across sectors.
The IIW is trying to address this shortage and has trained about 2,000 welders said Mr Abby Joseph, immediate past chairman of the IIW Mumbai branch “but we need at least 10,000 engineers annually.”
A 300-hour training programme for welding engineers costs around Rs 1 lakh. The medium and small enterprises are particularly effected and are unable to take orders for manufacturing capital goods as they don’t have the manpower and cannot afford to train them, Mr Joseph said.
