Achyut Ghatak took over the charge as Director (Technical), Coal India Limited (CIL) on 23rd January 2025. He succeeds Dr. B Veera Reddy who stepped down on 31 August 2024 on attaining the age of superannuation. Mr. P M Prasad, Chairman, CIL held the additional charge during the intervening period.
Prior to stepping into the Director’s post, Mr. Ghatak was Director, (Technical/Research & Development) in Central Mine Planning and Design Institute, Ranchi a mine consultancy subsidiary of CIL. He also worked in CIL’s corporate headquarters as General Manager, Project Monitoring and Corporate Planning.
A graduate Mining Engineer of 1989 batch from Government College of Engineering & Technology, Raipur he also cleared his first class Mine Manager’s Certificate of Competency in 1993. He began his career as a Junior Executive Trainee in 1989 in Western Coalfields Limited, the coal producing subsidiary of CIL.
At a time when the coal behemoth is pursuing 100 million tonne production from its underground mines by FY 2029, CIL can rely on Mr. Ghatak’s nearly two-decade experience of working in mechanized underground mines. He also had a key role in formulating and implementing the underground vision plan of CIL as well as preparing the roadmap for 1 Billion Tonne of coal production.
“Ramping up the coal production, embracing the latest emerging technologies and strengthening the coal transportation system, especially the eco-friendly first mile connectivity projects and giving impetus to R&D will be the priority concerns”, Mr. Ghatak said.
