Chandigarh, Feb 24 (KNN) Two industrial clusters fr0m Haryana named Rai Industries Association, Sonipat, and Integrated Association of Micro Small and Medium Enterprise of India, Faridabad have been selected under the Skills Strengthening for Industrial Value Enforcement (STRIVE), a new World Bank funded project that has been approved by Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) in November 2016 for a total cost of Rs 2200 crore (318 million dollars).

The industrial clusters selected under STRIVE will get funding of Rs 1 crore each over a period of three years for imparting training to students of the industrial training institutes.

Raja Sekhar Vundru, Additional Chief Secretary, Skill Development and Industrial Training Department, Haryana said that the government would have a tripartite agreement involving the Department of Skill Development and Industrial Training, Haryana; Directorate General of Training in the Central government and the industrial cluster concerned.

“It is a matter of pride for Haryana that of the 19-odd industrial clusters selected fr0m across the country, two are fr0m our state. We had selected these two clusters fr0m a number of applicants because of their robust infrastructure,” Vundru added.

He further said that though the action plan was still to be chalked out, the Department would sign the tripartite agreement within a month adding, ''the industrial clusters will get Rs 1 crore each for a period of three years after the signing of the agreement.

Commenting on the same, Rakesh Chhabra, President of Rai Industries Association, said his members were excited after the cluster’s selection among 19 in the country fr0m hundreds of applicants.

“For making the cluster, we invited applications fr0m industrialists who have 10 or more workers. Nearly 35 industries have joined our cluster,” he added.

Chhabra also said that the ITI trainees coming to their cluster would get the best industrial training needed for preparing them to be part of the workforce and after completion of their training they would be fit to work in any industry of their expertise.

Among other industrial clusters selected by the Central government are three fr0m Karnataka, two each fr0m Odisha, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Telangana and one each fr0m Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh.