The Nagaland Public Works Department (NPWD) observed 52nd Engineers Day under the theme, ‘Engineering for Change’ at Engineer-in-Chief Conference Hall, NPWD Complex, Kohima on 15th September 2022.
In a press release, the Association of Engineers PWD informed that NPWD engineer-in-chief, Er. Kahuli Sema in her keynote address, expressed gratitude to God, who she said, was the “engineer of the engineers” and “architect of the architects”. She said God had beautifully created heaven and earth, but he assigned mankind to develop the world and thus created engineers. Stressing on the theme “Engineering for change”, Er. Kahuli said every engineer played an important role in nation-building and had huge tasks in different fields. In this regard, she encouraged the engineers present, to be sincere and dedicated to their service.
Er I Tiameren, the Chief Engineer, NPWD (Housing), Nagaland in his brief presentation on the ‘vision document of NPWD housing’ stated that Nagaland state has 5377 numbers of government residential buildings of various types from Type I to VIP bungalows as per PWD Housing Building inventory 2019. Most of the buildings were constructed during the 1960 and 1970s and “some are beyond economical repair and outlived their building ages,” Media Cell, Association of Engineers PWD stated in a press release. He mentioned that Nagaland state has around 1,23,182 employees as per Nagaland State government payroll as of March 31, 2021, wherein only a fraction of government employees benefited from the government accommodation and the rest is either residing in their own private house or private rented house paying huge rent fees. Therefore, to overcome the issue of shortage of accommodation in the housing sector, he mentioned that the PWD Housing Nagaland has set a target by 2030 to achieve affordable housing in all the district headquarters and town from present government accommodation availability of 4.37% to achieve the target at 5.20% by the construction of 1000 dwelling units flat type which may include rental housing with latest construction technology.
Further, he stated that to achieve the target it needs to reactivate Nagaland Housing Board with a new Nagaland Housing policy to strengthen and provide affordable housing for all economic groups of people and uniformity in all the districts and towns of Nagaland.
Er, Hozheto Shikhu, President, Association of Engineer NPWD highlights the significance of Engineers day and said that September 15 is observed as Engineer's Day to mark the birth anniversary of Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya popularly known as MV, the first Indian civil engineer, statesman in India in recognition of his achievement. Other Chief Engineers also spoke at the event and the programme was chaired by Er Moasashi, Chief Engineer PWD, Mechanical.