Zohra Chatterji takes over as Coal India CMD tomorrow

Zohra Chatterji, the Additional Secretary in the Coal Ministry, will take up the additional charge of Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Coal India (CIL) tomorrow.

N C Jha, the Director (Technical) of CIL, who took over the additional charge of CMD of the firm in March last year, retires today.

"He (Jha) is retiring today and she (Chatterji) will take the (additional) charge (of CIL Chairman) tomorrow," Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said at a press conference here today.

Reply to a query at the conference, Jha said the production target of CIL for 2012-13 has been fixed at 464 million tonnes (MT).

Chatterji, a 1979 batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, is also the government nominee director on the board of Coal India.

Chatterji is the first woman to become the CMD of CIL, the world's largest coal producer, which accounts for 80 per cent of domestic production of the dry fuel.

Earlier, Jaiswal had said that either Alok Perti, Secretary in the Coal Ministry, or Chatterji would take over as acting CMD until a full-time chief is appointed.

The process of selecting a full-time CMD began early last year. Former Chairman Partha S Bhattacharyya retired on February 28 last year. Jha was given the additional charge after Bhattacharyya's retirement.