VINOD BHAT
Delhi, JAN 09:
Taking a pioneering step towards nurturing future professionals, NHAI in association with the Department of Higher Education, Government of India has launched ‘NHAI Internship Program’. The initiative is designed to serve as a gateway for aspiring professionals to gain real-world, hands-on experience within the largest National Highway development ecosystem in the country. The program was launched by Shri Vineet Joshi, Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Shri Santosh Kumar Yadav, Chairman NHAI in presence of senior officials from NHAI, Ministry of Education and AICTE.
Ensuring wider accessibility and transparency of the initiative, NHAI has also introduced a dedicated Internship Portal that will function as an integrated platform offering internship opportunities across over 150 major National Highway projects nationwide. Each project will accommodate up to four interns, creating an initial pool of nearly 600 students drawn from institutions, including IITs, NITs and AICTE affiliated institutes across the country. The Internship Portal offers programs of one month, two months, and six months, aligned with varying academic and industry requirements. All interns selected under the program are provided with a stipend of ₹20,000 per month to support learning, mobility, and professional growth.
Ministry of Higher Education has launched National Education Policy 2020, which encourages experimental learning, industry exposure and boosts employability by offering flexible curriculum and credit linked internship, along with extended duration internship during the final year of undergraduate program. Aligned with the spirit of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the internship program is structured to go beyond observational learning. Interns will actively participate in projects, gaining valuable field-based exposure for technical and managerial aspects of National Highway development. The program will offer deep insights and hands-on exposure into how National Highways are planned, engineered and implemented on ground.
While the primary focus will be on Civil Engineering students, opportunities are also available for students from IT, Electronics, and Electrical Engineering disciplines, particularly in advanced domains such as Advanced Traffic Management Systems and Electronic Toll Collection.
The ‘Winter Internship’ offered under this program got an encouraging response with participation of around 250 students. As part of this initiative, six-month internship program for under-graduate engineering students has been introduced which will commence from 19th January 2026. Notably, around 500 applications have already been received for the six-month final-year under-graduate internship program. The Internship Program will also be extended to post-graduate students in future.
The internship program underscores NHAI’s continued focus on skill development, aimed at creating a robust talent ecosystem and preparing the next generation of professionals to contribute to infrastructure development of the country.
