Addl coal secretary Suresh Kumar assumes interim charge as Coal India CMD

He takes over from Gopal Singh, current CMD of Central Coalfields Ltd, a Coal India subsidiary

Suresh Kumar, who holds the portfolio as the additional secretary in the coal ministry, on Monday, took over as the chairman-cum-managing director of Coal India as an additional charge.

In a filing with the BSE, the world's largest coal miner said, "Ministry of Coal...has entrusted the additional charge of CMD, CIL to Suresh Kumar, Additional Secretary, MoC (Ministry of Coal). He has assumed the additional charge as CMD, CIL with effect from April 23, 2018".

He took over the reigns of the coal monolith from Gopal Singh, the current chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) of Central Coalfields Ltd, a Coal India subsidiary. Singh was entrusted with the additional charge of the parent company since September 2017 after the government head-hunter, PESB couldn't find any suitable candidate from the applicants to lead the coal miner.

Earlier, PESB had suggested that the coal ministry has the option to choose an appropriate course of action for selection of CMD for Coal India as it didn't find any of the six applicants it interviewed as fit for the top post. Singh had applied for the top job during the selection process.

The coal ministry had extended Singh's tenure as the acting chairman of Coal India till May this year. However, before this tenure came to an end, Kumar has been entrusted with the responsibility.

Singh had succeeded Sutirtha Bhattacharya, who retired from the post of Coal India CMD on August 31, 2017.

Since September 2017, Coal India has been without a full-time chairman who can take full responsibility of the company's decisions.

Since last year, the government has been on the hunt for a full-time CMD to lead the coal miner and invited applications from professionals from both the public as well as the private sector. While inviting applications through an advertisement, the government had said, "The applicants may submit their applications to the ministry of coal".