Kolkata: Coal India is all set to get a new full time chairman. However, he is slated to retire in less than two years. The development comes eight months after its last full time chairman retired in August and two acting chairmen were appointed in the interim.

Anil Kumar Jha, chairman and managing director of subsidiary Mahanadi Coalfields, is likely to take over as the chairman of its holding company, Coal India.

Jha will replace acting chairman Suresh Kumar, an IAS officer, who has been holding the post of additional secretary at the ministry of coal. Jha will remain the chairman till his retirement which falls due on January 31, 2020 – less than two years from now.
 

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With this development Coal India will finally have a full time chairman after eight months. 

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has issued the directive recently, according to a document reviewed by ET, although Coal India is yet to receive an official communication from the government. According to the document, the ministry of coal has been apprised to the decision by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet.

In June last year, the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB), which was entrusted with the task of finding a candidate for the chairman’s post at Coal India after interviewing half a dozen candidates could not find any one suitable for the post.

According to Coal India executives, Jha took over as the chairman of Mahanadi Coalfields on November 1, 2015. This subsidiary supplies almost 25% of the nation’s requirement of thermal coal and is one of the largest among all its eight coal producing subsidiaries.

Jha is an MTech in Mine Planning & Design from the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, Jharkhand. He comes with a rich work experience spanning 32 years in the field of mine planning, production, management supervision, direction and control of underground as well as open cast coal mines. He has worked with Central Mine Planning & Design Institute, the exploration arm of Coal India, for 14 years, planning both opencast and underground mines.

After joining Coal India at Central Coalfields (CCL) in July 1983, he rose rapidly and has handled various senior positions rising to become the director (production & planning) of MOIL, erstwhile Manganese Ore (India)