"The government is looking at setting up an Urban Institute of India which is very much needed for training and imparting skills to municipal officers...Urban planning which is very much needed because we have a huge skill deficit in this sector," Nath told reporters here.
Earlier Nath told a conference said though the real estate sector was the second largest employer in the country, there was a shortage of skilled professionals.
A high-powered committee had recommended setting up of five such institutes, the Urban Development Minister said.
To a question on the Thane building collapse which had claimed several lives, Nath said the state governments should form regulators and rules to check such incidents.
"Regulators should be brought by state governments and rules should be created so that all this can be checked," he said.