With several ongoing infrastructure projects in the MMR witnessing delays due to lack of labourers, the Maharashtra government's skill development ministry has decided to conduct an online job fair next week.
In the absence of labourers, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), which is implementing large infrastructure projects, is facing the challenge of project delays of more than 5-6 months.
Therefore, the state's ministry of skill development has decided to conduct 'Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Online Job Fair" in two phases between July 6 and July 12 to fill the vacancy.
Last month, MMRDA had also advertised vacancies for over 16,726 workers for various projects undertaken by the authority, after Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray urged the sons of the soil to come forward to make Maharashtra 'Atmanirbhar'.
In an advertisement published on June 15, the agency had expressed the need for both skilled and unskilled labour force.
According to an MMRDA official, the authority had received "good response" for the advertisement and hundreds of workers from across the state were coming in.
Meanwhile, contractors of various projects were also taking initiatives to get labourers from different states, the official said.
However, MMRDA did not give the total number of locals who have come to the city on their own after the advertisement.
Under the first phase of the job fair, hiring for 2,923 labourers would be conducted by the Skill Development, Employment and Entrepreneurship Guidance Centre of the Thane region between July 6 and 8.
The second phase would be held in Mumbai city and suburb under the skill development department of the government between July 8 and 12.
Lakhs of migrating labourers left for their villages amid the rising number of COVID cases in Maharashtra, especially Mumbai.
