S Bhattacharya appointed CMD of Coal India

Senior IAS officer S Bhattacharya has been appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director of Coal India Ltd (CIL). The coal major was without a full time chief for the past six months. “The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet had a couple of days back cleared Bhattacharya for the top job,” an official said adding that “the order for his appointment has been made.” The PESB had last month recommended the name of S Bhattacharya, a 1985 batch IAS officer, for the post of Chairman and Managing Director of Coal India Ltd, the world’s largest miner.  Bhattacharya takes over the charge from Additional Secretary (Coal) AK Dubey who was given the additional charge as CMD of CIL from 26 June. S Narsing Rao, an IAS officer of 1986 batch from Andhra Pradesh Cadre, had resigned from the post in May. Bhattacharya, is currently the CMD of Singareni Collieries Company (SCCL). The appointment of new chief will help the company to evolve strategies for achieving an annual coal production of 1 billion tonnes by 2019. Coal India had missed the production target of 482 million tonnes last fiscal, with an output of 462 MT. Bhattacharya was widely viewed as a front runner for the job. “Search-cum-Selection committee recommended the name (of S Bhattacharya) for the post of Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), Coal India Limited (CIL),” Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) had said on its website. The PESB recommended Bhattacharya’s name from among 12 contenders who were interviewed for the key post. Candidates interviewed included Nagendra Kumar, Director (Technical), Coal India, Gopal Singh CMD, Central Coalfields Ltd and NK Nanda, Director (Technical) NMDC, PESB said. PTI