Urban planning: Institute to train civic bodies in the offing, says Union Minister Kamal Nath

NEW DELHI: Government is mulling to set up an institute for bridging the skill deficit in the area of urban planning and development especially among officials of civic bodies, Union Minister Kamal Nath said today.

"The government is looking at setting up an Urban Institute of India which is very much needed for training and imparting skills to municipal officers...urban planning which is very much needed because we have a huge skill deficit in this sector," Nath told reporters here.

Earlier Nath told a conference said though the real estate sector was the second largest employer in the country, there was a shortage of skilled professionals.

During the evaluation of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), he said, it was felt that there were severe shortcomings in the implementation of scheme due to lack of expertise in the personnel available with the urban local bodies.

A high-powered committee had recommended setting up of five such institutes, the Urban Development Minister said.

To a question on the Thane building collapse which had claimed several lives, Nath said the state governments should form regulators and rules to check such incidents.

"Regulators should be brought by state governments and rules should be created so that all this can be checked," he said.