The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), in association with the Department of Higher Education, Government of India, has launched the NHAI Internship Programme along with a dedicated Internship Portal to nurture future professionals through real-world exposure. The programme was launched by Shri Vineet Joshi, Secretary, Department of Higher Education, and Shri Santosh Kumar Yadav, Chairman, NHAI, in the presence of senior officials from NHAI, the Ministry of Education and AICTE. The dedicated Internship Portal will act as an integrated platform offering internship opportunities across more than 150 major national highway projects across the country. Each project will accommodate up to four interns, creating opportunities for nearly 600 students from IITs, NITs and AICTE-affiliated institutions. Internship durations of one month, two months and six months are available, aligned with academic and industry requirements. Selected interns will receive a stipend of Rs 20,000 per month. Aligned with the National Education Policy 2020, the programme focuses on experiential learning beyond observation. Interns will actively participate in ongoing projects, gaining practical exposure to technical and managerial aspects of national highway planning, engineering and execution. While civil engineering students remain the primary focus, opportunities are also open to students from IT, electronics and electrical engineering disciplines, particularly in areas such as advanced traffic management systems and electronic toll collection. The Winter Internship under the programme saw participation from around 250 students. A six-month internship for undergraduate engineering students will commence from 19 January 2026, with nearly 500 applications already received. The programme is expected to be extended to postgraduate students in the future, reinforcing NHAI’s commitment to skill development and capacity building in infrastructure.