PUNE: The online registration of construction workers and allocation of smart cards would take off in the state next year to ensure their safety and security on the site.
The labour welfare board would set up 41 work facilitation centres across the state to enable workers register themselves without any hassles. Eight offices are ready at Aurangabad, Jalna, Worli, Solapur, Amravati, Panvel, Bhandara and Nanded. The rest would be operational after the necessary area is allocated.
S C Shrirangam, CEO of Maharashtra Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board, said five officials from a private company would be appointed in each centre to help the district labour officers. Three would operate from the office. The other two would visit sites to register the workers.
The Maharashtra Labour Welfare Board is a statutory body constituted under the Bombay Labour Welfare Fund Act, 1953. It conducts labour welfare activities through welfare centres and encourages all workers to register with it. Even contractors working on projects like road construction, water supply, drainage and pipelines can register as workers with the board.
At present, the state has 20.6 lakh registered workers. Of them, as many as 13.1 lakh are active. Officials from the board stressed the number of construction workers would go up once the online registration process was rolled out.