New Delhi: With an aim to fulfill the needs of skilled manpower, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has announced the setting up of 1000 new Polytechnics across the country.

"The scheme has been launched under the 'Coordinated Action for Skill Development' in order to augment skilled manpower requirement in the country by providing assistance to State Governments", an official from the HRD Ministry said.

The scheme, named 'Sub-Mission on Polytechnics', is aimed at setting up Polytechnics in various parts of the country with special emphasis on catering to the needs of the unserved, underserved areas and disadvantaged sections of the society.

Of the 1000 Polytechnics, 300 polytechnics will be setup with a one time Central grant of Rs.12.3 crores per Polytechnic to meet the capital cost.

Similarly, about 300 polytechnics would be set up under the Private Public Partnership (PPP) mode with a partial funding of Rs.3 crores per Polytechnic from the Central Government. The rest 400 Polytechnics will be setup through private funding.

Besides the financial support for the setting up new Polytechnics, it has also been decided to strengthen the existing polytechnic system by granting funds upto Rs.2 crores per Polytechnic for 500 Polytechnics.

"As one of the components to incentivise the skill development among women, grants are also proposed for construction of women hostels in more than 500 polytechnics at the cost of Rs.1 crore each", the official added.

Under the revised scheme of community Polytechnics, it has also been proposed to cover about 1000 polytechnics at a cost of Rs.737.82 crores to provide skilled personnel at the grass-root level as well as to facilitate appropriate technology transfer to the local community.

The total outlay for the entire scheme is Rs.6828 crores to be spent during the Eleventh and Twelfth Plan period.