MMT to partner Tata to establish training institute
Metro Mass Transit (MMT) Limited is in talks with Tata Africa Holdings (Ghana) Limited for the establishment of a training institute to cater for the upgrade of the skills of the company’s drivers and the public.
Advertisement
“If we have the centre, we will not only train metro mass drivers; we can make additional income by training more truck and bus drivers throughout the country,” the Deputy Managing Director of the company, Mr John Awuku Dzuazah, said at the opening of an e-learning centre for the company in Accra.
Funded by Tata Holdings Limited, the centre will be equipped with facilities that will make it possible for technicians, mechanics and other operational staff to upgrade their knowledge.
Currently, Metro Mass sends its technicians and operation staff to countries including Belgium, The Netherlands and India to train them to upgrade their knowledge in taking care of their fleet.
But with the establishment of the centre, the company will not have to send out its operational staff, especially for skills acquisition for its Tata buses.
Currently, Metro Mass has 130 Tata buses among its fleet. The company also has some 500 technicians and mechanics maintaining about 800 vehicles.
Tata’s experience
Tata set up its first commercial vehicle driving centre in Madhya Pradesh in India in 2011. Today, it runs eight such centres, including the most recent one operating as a public-private partnership between Tata Motors and Urjanchal Driving School in Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh.
That experience, Mr Dzuazah said, would be useful for the MMT as it sought to establish a similar facility in Ghana.
Other Trending Stories
“While the company has plans to invest a lot in vehicles, the investment will have no value if the drivers do not receive proper training. It will be like throwing money into a dustbin,” he said.
Ghana’s new road traffic law insists that every commercial driver in Ghana must be given at least 35 hours of training every year.
However, facilities for the training are far and in-between for the more than 500, 000 commercial vehicle drivers in the country.
That, Mr Dzuazah said, created an opportunity for the company.
“Let’s ask ourselves how many drivers out there will be able to get this training. The training schools we have all across Ghana provide training services to people who want to drive saloon cars and mini vans. We don’t have any training institute in this country that can train truck, tanker and bus drivers.”
With the MMT about to roll out its five-year strategic plan, the deputy managing director said the safety of its passengers and staff remained an important goal.
He commended Tata for the gesture, and pledged that it would be put to good use.
While pledging that the company would also make the facility available to benefit technical institutions in the country, he also urged the company’s operational staff to take advantage of it and explore what it offered.
Tata officials
Mr Shrinivas R. Torvi, the Area Customer Support Manager-Ghana/International Business, said the e-learning centre had features that could easily track the performance of the trainees.
Mr Vivek Saraswat, Tata’s General Manager in Ghana, said the centre was part of the company’s corporate social responsibility and its prioritisation of safety.