The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, visited the Ashok Leyland Driver Training Institute (DTI) at Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh, recently. The president was informed of the initiatives Ashok Leyland is taking to train drivers by taking him on a tour of the institute. The President was shown the modern equipment, including a simulator, and infrastructure that is used to train drivers. Describing the driver training institute as a centre of excellence, Vinod K. Dasari, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Ashok Leyland, said that drivers are sensitised to the responsibility of holding life both on and off the road. Claimed Ashok Leyland sources that the CV maker has trained president’s drivers for the last six years. The training institute at Chindwara is equipped with aggregates, general and special tools, technical handouts and audio-visual equipment. There are well-equipped mobile training vans that Ashok Leyland deploys all over India along with experienced trainers and instructors. Courses on familiarisation and maintenance of Ashok Leyland products are conducted. The first driver institute was set up by Ashok Leyland in 1995 at Namakkal, Tamil Nadu. It has come to have nine institutes across India over time; at Namakkal, Chhindwara, Kaithal, Bhubaneswar, Railmagra, Dharwad, Bengaluru and Ranoli. Over eight lakh drivers have been trained.