The MoU was signed between AICTE Chairman Anil D Sahasrabudhe and Gurmit Singh Arora, IPA's National President.
According to the MoU, students studying engineering, architecture, or interior designing, or graduates with a "major" degree in civil, environmental, and mechanical engineering, architecture, or interior designing, will be able to take a four-credit course in "Plumbing" (Water and Sanitation).
"There is a strong felt requirement of the plumbing curriculum in engineering and architecture curriculum as it leads to the health of a building. The IPA and the AICTE have collaborated to create a 50-hour plumbing course that would be 80 percent theory and 20 percent practise," AICTE Chairman said at the MoU signing.
IPA and AICTE have urged all educational institutions, approved by the technical education regulator, to provide a plumbing (water and sanitation) programme to prepare students for their careers in the industry. Through AICTE's faculty development programmes, IPA will train institutional faculty to administer the plumbing course. "This is a tremendous opportunity for the whole plumbing sector stakeholders since plumbing will become more organised and structured following this. One of IPA's goals is to educate and instruct engineers, architects and students in these fields on the characteristics of excellent and proper plumbing techniques," Arora said.
