R Mohan Das, N Kumar, Gopal Singh from Coal India in race to become Chairman

KOLKATA: Three candidates from state-run monopoly miner Coal India are in the race for the chairman's post which has been vacant since S Narsing Rao retired in May.

According to people familiar with the matter, these include R Mohan Das, director-personnel and industrial relations and N Kumar, director-technical from Coal India and Gopal Singh, chairman and managing director of Coal India's subsidiary Central Coalfields.

AK Dubey, additional secretary in the coal ministry, who was appointed as acting chairman for three months and whose tenure was extended for three months, is expected to continue till a fulltime chairman is appointed.

This time the government has decided to allow candidates from the private sector to apply for the post although the salary structure for the top post in the world's largest miner has not been revised. Candidates eligible for the post from the private sector must be full-time director, president or CEO in a listed company with an average annual turnover of Rs 5,000 crore during the past three financial years.

For executives from unlisted companies, the average annual turnover of the group to which it belongs should be at least Rs 10,000 crore and the holding company or at least one of the subsidiaries of the group should be listed on a stock exchange.

The Prime Minister's Office has directed the coal ministry to set up a search-cum-selection committee to choose the candidate and conduct the appointment process through the Public Enterprise Selection Board (PSEB), whose chairman has been made the head of the committee. Following this, the PESB published an advertisement for the chairman's post, for which the last date for application is the end of the month.

Till now, most chairmen of Coal India have been appointed from the company itself.

The last time was an exception since the chairman of Singareni Collieries was selected. However, all candidates till now have been from central public sector units.

The candidate who takes over as the next chairman will face a tough responsibility as nearly 46 mines will be reallocated to the company so that these continue to function. The company may also be given the responsibility of handling the auctions of the blocks that have been deallocated from the private sector.

Coal India, which has been struggling to meet the national demand, is likely to import the fuel for the first time this fiscal.The miner has been suffering from quality issues and price hike has dented its profits in the recent past.