PESB recommends SECL's Franklin Jayakumar as next NCL CMD

New Delhi: The Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) has recommended N Franklin Jayakumar, currently Director (Technical Operations) at South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL), for appointment as Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD) of Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL), the Singrauli-based subsidiary of Coal India Limited (CIL). The recommendation was made on Wednesday after PESB interviewed the shortlisted candidates.

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It is not the final word on the appointment: a PESB recommendation must clear the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) before the selected candidate can formally take charge. Jayakumar has been at Bilaspur-based SECL since February 2024.

A three-decade career across coal and lignite

Jayakumar is a mining engineer with more than 30 years of experience across coal and lignite operations. He joined SECL as Director (Technical) and (Project & Planning) in February 2024 and took charge as Director (Technical Operations) on January 1, 2025.

Before SECL, he was Executive Director (Coal Coordination) and Project Head of the Talabira II and III opencast project at NLC India Limited, after several leadership roles at the lignite miner. Earlier, he spent 18 years at Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) across mechanised underground and opencast mines, and led operations at a 5-million-tonne-per-annum coal mine in Indonesia for five years.

A graduate in mining engineering from the College of Engineering, Guindy (Anna University, Chennai), he also holds a post-graduate diploma in environmental engineering and management and an MBA in human resource management. He holds a First Class Mine Manager's Certificate of Competency from the Directorate General of Mines Safety (DGMS) and is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers (India). He has served on the board of the Skill Council for Mining Sector and contributed to the Ministry of Coal's Crisis Management Plan.

The post he would inherit

NCL's top post has been vacant since December 16, 2025, when B Sairam, then NCL CMD, moved up to head Coal India Limited. Sairam has held additional charge of the NCL role since then under a six-month interim arrangement approved by the Ministry of Coal.

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NCL is among CIL's largest and most profitable subsidiaries. The Miniratna runs large opencast mines in the Singrauli belt straddling Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, supplying coal largely to thermal power plants.

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