- New initiative offers paid, hands-on exposure across 150 national highway projects; six-month internships to begin from 19 January 2026
Taking a step towards nurturing future-ready professionals, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), in association with the Department of Higher Education, Government of India, has introduced the NHAI Internship Programme, along with a dedicated internship portal. The initiative was unveiled by Vineet Joshi, Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, and Santosh Kumar Yadav, Chairman, NHAI, in the presence of senior officials from NHAI, the Ministry of Education and AICTE.
Designed as a gateway for aspiring professionals, the programme aims to provide real-world, hands-on exposure within India’s national highway development ecosystem. To ensure transparency and wider accessibility, the NHAI has introduced a dedicated internship portal that will serve as an integrated platform offering internship opportunities across more than 150 major national highway projects nationwide.
Each project will accommodate up to four interns, creating an initial pool of nearly 600 students from institutions including IITs, NITs and AICTE-affiliated institutes. The portal offers internship durations of one month, two months and six months, aligned with diverse academic and industry requirements. Selected interns will receive a stipend of Rs 20,000 per month to support learning, mobility and professional development.
Aligned with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which promotes experiential learning, industry exposure and credit-linked internships, the programme is structured to move beyond observational learning. Interns will actively participate in projects, gaining field-based exposure to both technical and managerial aspects of national highway development, including planning, engineering and on-ground execution.
While the primary focus remains on civil engineering students, the programme also offers opportunities for students from IT, electronics and electrical engineering disciplines, particularly in emerging areas such as advanced traffic management systems and electronic toll collection.
The ‘Winter Internship’ offered under the programme has already received an encouraging response, with participation from around 250 students. In addition, a six-month internship programme for undergraduate engineering students has been introduced and will commence from 19 January 2026. Notably, around 500 applications have already been received for the six-month final-year undergraduate internships. The programme is also expected to be extended to postgraduate students in the future.
