Captain Indraveer Solanki, the project director of National Inland Navigation Institute and vice-chairman of Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), and Deepak Das, the member finance of IWAI, take a look at the equipment at the institute at Patna City on Friday. Pictures by Sachin

Patna, Aug. 5: The passing out ceremony of the 15th batch of Inland Vessel General Purpose Rating course of National Inland Navigation Institute (NINI) was held on its premises at Gai Ghat in Patna City, today.

It was a proud moment for the 48 students of the course as they took formal leave from the training institution, where they had spent six rigorous months of river water shipping training.

“The entire training was a wonderful learning experience wherein we were trained on state-of-the-art modern equipment in the institute. We were fortunate to be trained in one of its kind inland navigation institute in the country, which has great infrastructure and faculty,” said Ajay Kumar Sinha, a student of the passing out batch.

NINI was established in 2004 under the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) under the ministry of shipping. The institute in Patna is the only such institute run by IWAI in eastern India.

The ceremony started with lighting of the traditional lamp by chief guest Deepak Das, member finance of IWAI. After lighting the lamp, Das took a look at the simulators and other facilities inside the campus and then presided over the prize distribution and cultural programmes.

Speaking on the occasion, Das exhorted on the bright future of the students. “I would like to congratulate the passing out students of the 15th batch of this institute, who would be doing two years of compulsory apprenticeship for in-hand experience on board the vessels. We, at IWAI, would hire such students for the apprenticeship programme on its ships and the students would also be given Rs 5,000 as stipend. Though there has been a lull in the sector in the past, situations now are improving as more and more public sector undertakings and private firms are opting for inland navigation for transporting raw material and finished products between different parts of the country. The dependence on inland navigation is certain to surge in the near future because of heavy burden on road transport, thus creating large number of job opportunities in this sector,” said Das.

Speaking on the occasion, Captain Indraveer Solanki, the project director of NINI and vice-chairman of IWAI, expressed displeasure on the growing trend of trainees who drop out during the apprenticeship programme. “It has been observed that 30 per cent of the passout students of the previous batches leave the training programme within three to four months. There were certain challenges in the inland navigation sector but this sector is going to register revolutionary growth very soon,” said Solanki.