Thiruvananthapuram, July 15 (IANS): A Kerala institute set up at a cost of Rs.100 crore will provide skill development courses for masons, diploma holders and engineers, a minister said on Wednesday.

The Indian Institute for Infrastructure and Construction will offer the courses to keep up with the growing demand of the infrastructure industry.

Students will get a certification of the Britain-based City and Guilds - a global leader in skills development, Labour Minister Shibu Baby John told IANS.

The campus is coming up on a nine-acre plot near Kollam and the institute building is spread across two lakh square feet. The institute will open in January next year.

The institute will be owned by the state government but would be operated and managed by the Middle East-based Keralite business honcho P.N.C. Menon who heads the Sobha Group, the minister said.

"Its subsidiary will overlook the running of this institute. The state government has pumped in Rs.55 crore, while the Sobha Group has put in Rs.15 crore and the rest is the cost of land that the state government has provided," said the engineer-turned minister.

"There have been huge developments in the fields of infrastructure and the construction industry. Unless the skills of our people are upgraded, our qualified people will lose out in getting jobs," said John.

He said the agreement with the Sobha Group is that 60 percent of the pass outs will get placements either in India or abroad, added John.

The institute will offer short and long term courses with a duration of one month to two years.

In the first year, 2,000 students will be inducted and it will be scaled up to 5,000 students in due course.