New Delhi: B Sairam is set to be the next Chairman of Coal India Limited (CIL), a Maharatna PSU under the Ministry of Coal. He has been recommended for the top post of Coal India by the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) panel on September 20. Presently, he is serving as Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) of Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL).
Sairam will replace PM Prasad, who is set to superannuate on November 1, 2025.
Sairam has been recommended for the post of CMD of Coal India from a list of 11 candidates, who were interviewed by the PESB selection panel in its selection meeting held on September 20. Among the prominent contenders were Mukesh Choudhary, Director (Marketing) of Coal India; Indra Dev Narayan, CMD of MECL; Nilendu Kumar Singh, CMD of CCL; Pankaj Kumar Sharma, Director (Production) of NALCO; Vishwanath Suresh, Director (Commercial), NMDC Limited; Vinay Kumar, Director (Technical) of NMDC Limited; Anuj Jain, Director (Finance) of Indian Oil; Hemant Kumar Das, Executive Director (Projects) of PFC; Alok Singh, Principal Commissioner of Income Tax, Rajkot; and Dr Pudi Hariprasad, Chief Administration Officer of Indian Railways.
Sairam has been serving as the CMD of NCL since March 2024. He comes with a vast reservoir of experience spanning over 33 years in the coal sector.
A graduate mining engineer from NIT Raipur, Sairam has traversed various domains within the coal industry, including mine operations, planning, logistics, and regulatory affairs. He also has to his credit a 15-month full-time residential PGDM in Energy Management at NTPC School of Business Delhi. During this program, he also undertook a 15-day immersion program at Nanyang Business School, Singapore, enriching his understanding of global energy dynamics.
Before he was appointed as CMD of NCL, Sairam was serving as Director (Technical) in Ranchi-based Central Coalfields Limited where he played pivotal roles in stepping-up company’s organic growth, development of coal logistics like tripling of Tori-Shivpur Line, thus augmenting coal dispatch to upcountry power consumers, First Mile Connectivity projects, including North Urimiri CHP-Silo, Forest & Environment Clearance, and projectising greenfield and brownfield mines.
Sairam has been instrumental in community development projects and aligning Coal India’s sustainability vision with UN sustainability goals during his stint as Executive Director at CIL. He has also spearheaded key divisions such as Employee Welfare, Public Relations, and Legal.
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