The Railways has tied up with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to train the children of its three lakh gangmen and trackmen in various vocational courses, senior officers have said.

They said the national transporter has decided to allot space along railway stations or in properties owned by it to set up NSDC centres.

The centres would come up near railway colonies so these can be easily accessed by the children, officials said.

The scheme for imparting skill development to these children has already been approved by the Prime Minister’s Office, where recently, a presentation was made by senior railway officials.

The Railways has already identified 100 locations along stations near railway colonies where skill development centres could come up and 53 of them have already been nominated for NSDC, while 44 additional locations have been earmarked for the purpose.

A senior railway official said, “We are not just looking at land, but even rooms or any space available with the railways that can be given to the NSDC for the centres. We want the children of these employees to learn skills so that they can build a career. Hopefully, they will even be placed with companies once they get trained.”

Indian Railways’ total vacant land is estimated at a 47,300 hectares, but only a portion of this area can practically be used for commercial purposes, as 90% of it is linear land on the sides of rail tracks.

Some of this unused land, officials say, could be identified for setting up NSDC centres.