S Bhattacharya selected as Coal India CMD

The PESB has recommended the name of S Bhattacharya, a senior IAS officer, for the post of Chairman and Managing Director of CIL -- the world's largest coal miner which has been without a regular head for the last few months.
Bhattacharya, CMD of Singareni Collieries Company Ltd since May 2012, 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) said on its website.
The development comes at a time when CIL is grappling with target shortfalls, which has led to fuel shortages for thermal power plants. It missed the production target of 482 million tonnes last fiscal, with output of 462 MT.

Sutirtha Bhattacharya, 1985 batch IAS, Government of Telengana, succeeds S Narsing Rao, an IAS officer of 1986 batch from Andhra Pradesh Cadre. Rao had resigned from the coal PSU in May.
Additional Secretary (Coal) A K Dubey was given the additional charge as CMD of CIL from June 26.

Bhattacharya has been selected from among 12 contenders who were interviewed for the key post by PESB.
The candidates who were interviewed included Nagendra Kumar, Director (Technical), Coal India, Gopal Singh CMD, Central Coalfields Ltd and N K Nanda, Director (Technical) NMDC, PESB said.
The government had recently said that the production of Coal India would be increased to one billion tonnes by 2019.