Tata Motors, the country's largest auto maker, has declared the opening of a Commercial Vehicle Driving Centre in Singrauli, which happens to be an innovative public private partnership between Urjanchal Driving School and Tata Motors. Reportedly, the ribbons of this unit were cut by Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, along with senior officials of Tata Motors. With its new centre, the auto maker is planning to offer world class training to the drivers of commercial vehicles.
Reportedly, the auto maker has offered support by designing the course content and providing the technical assistance, whereas the Pratham institute, which is a known NGO, has been called as the implementation partner. The training centre unit of Tata Motors has a testing track and class rooms. This learning centre is expected to operate in two separate modules, one for heavy commercial vehicles and the other one for light commercial vehicles, which will be channelised by Audio-Video (AV) methodology and practical sessions. Each of the modules has the sufficient area to accommodate almost 25 students. Interestingly, this course does not only comprises the driving sessions, but also includes the classes of basic vehicle maintenance, financial literacy, first-aid, health, soft skills and yoga
It must be noted that the company has opened the gates of 8 such training institutes in the course of last year and a half. In the road fatalities, India ranks the highest in numbers all over the world with around 1.43 lakh cases occurring every year. Industry experts also believe that there is a massive shortage of skilled drivers in India, which results in a high number of accidents. From 2010, the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) has expected a demand for more than 50 lakh drivers, over tenure of 12 years. Therefore, Tata Motors has reproduced its two pronged strategy, which not only addresses the problem of road safety but will also assist in offering employment opportunities to the country's youth.
On this collaboration, industry experts are of a view that the great demand of commercial vehicle drivers at present and the upcoming mining and energy centres at Singrauli forced Tata Motors and Urjanchal Driving School to drive in a partnership. Interestingly, Tata Motors believes that a talented driver has a major stake in the transportation industry and therefore has taken this innovative initiative to help the country's youth in enhancing the dignity of this profession.
