The Public Enterprises Selection Board (PSEB) has recommended Central Coalfields CMD Polavarapu Mallikharjuna Prasad as the next Chairman and Managing Director of Coal India (CIL).
He is expected to take the charge of India’s largest coal miner from July 1.
A mining engineer from Osmania university, Prasad took over as the CCL CMD on September 1, 2020, and has more than three dec- ades of experience in the mining sector. Prasad also took over as the CMD of Bharat
Coking Coal (BCCL) in August 2019. Both CCL an BCCL are subsidiaries of CIL.
Prasad will take over the baton from serving CMD Pramod Agrawal, whose term ends on June 30, 2023. Agrawal is a Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer, who took over the charge of CMD of the mining behemoth from Anil Kumar Jha in January 2020. He is the third officer from the Indian Administrative Service to hold the top post at CIL.
The Maharatna company employs around 2,48,550 people and operates through 84 mining areas spread over eight statesThe mining giant has 318 mines (as on April 1, 2022) of which 141 are underground, 158 opencast and 19 mixed mines. CIL also has ten subsidiary companies.