Union Minister for Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSME) Kalraj Mishra along with Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Saturday laid foundation stone of Rs102.32 crore Tool Room and Technological Development Centre (TDC) of Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises at Baddi in Solan district.
The Tool Room would be set up under the Technology Centre System Programme (TCSP) of Government of India.
Addressing the gathering, Mishra said that the need was felt to open such Technology Centres to keep pace with the change in technology. He said that World Bank had sanctioned Rs2,200 crore for setting up such Technology Centres for 15 places in the country, adding that 10 different places had been identified so far. He thanked the State government for providing 20 acres of land free of cost for the Technology Centre.
He said that this Technology Centre/ Tool Room was a dream project of Virbhadra Singh and similar technology centres were coming up in Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Uttrakhand and other places where more than one lakh youth would be trained. He said that either these trained youths would set up their own industrial units or will be employed by major industries.
The Tool Room will provide quality training to the youth which would also be eco-friendly, he added.
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said that the project would be providing consultancy and advisory services in technology and engineering solutions for improvement of the quality system and productivity and would prove handy for providing employment to both the skilled and unskilled manpower.
He said that in April 2012, when he was Union Minister of the MSME, a mini Tool Room Centre was sanctioned to be opened at Baddi for which a land measuring 15000 sq meters was available and foundation stone was laid by him though the land was not sufficient.
There was a need of full fledged Tool Room for which 20 acres of land was required and our government had identified and provided the land at Baddi and the foundation stone had been laid by Union MSME Minister, Kalraj Mishra for the modern Technology Centre which will support the MSME’s through production, training and advisory support to the industrialists and it was no less than the engineering institute for the skilled and un-skilled youth.
The Chief Minister thanked Mishra and said that the project was conceptualized and initiated during his stint as Union Minister of MSME, adding that he hopes that the technology centre when completed, would contribute towards skilling the youth of the state to make them employable in industry by designing courses relevant to them.