ISLAMABAD, Dec 27: Japan has provided 890 million yen (approx $8 million) as grant assistance for enhancement of training capabilities of Construction Machinery Training Institute (CMTI).

A ceremony in this regard was held at the CMTI on Wednesday, which was attended by Federal Minister for Communications Muhammad Shamim Siddiqui and Charge d` Affairs of the Embassy of Japan Hiroyuki Kishino, says a press release.

The grant is aimed at supporting the efforts of the Government of Pakistan to develop human resources and thus revive the economy and reduce poverty.

The project’s main components include provision of construction machinery such as bulldozers, hydraulic excavators for training motor graders, crane simulators; equipment for implementing new training courses and construction of facilities such as a new training campus, accommodation for trainees.

CMTI was established in 1986 through Japan’s assistance which has recently been rechristened as Construction Technology Training Institute (CTTI).

Speaking on the occasion, Hiroyuki Kishino said that the achievement of CTTI in training to date was also remarkable. He said in the past two decades 11,200 students had completed various training courses at the institute as machine operators, mechanics as well as engineers and 750 were currently under training. Moreover, 193 foreign students have also been trained in accordance with JICA’s third country training programme, Kishino added.