Coal India on Saturday said P.M. Prasad has taken charge as chairman on July 1. He succeeds Pramod Agrawal who retired on June 30.

“CIL would achieve the 780 MT output target of FY 2024 with all efforts and means available at its disposal,” said Prasad after taking charge of the top post of the public sector miner and setting the priority areas for the company.

“On the supply side, ensuring uninterrupted coal flow to the power sectors is another priority area,” he added.

Prasad was earlier leading the Jharkhand-based Central Coalfields, a Coal India subsidiary.

He has been a veteran in the coal sector with three and half decades of experience. He is a post graduate in mining and engineering from the Indian School of Mines, IIT Dhanbad.

He also had a three-year stint in power major NTPC as executive director (coal mining).

Chasing the production target, Coal India has started the fiscal with a strong show in the first quarter.

Production during Q1 FY24 was 175.5 mt, which the public sector miner said was the highest ever recorded during the first quarter of any year, with a 10 per cent growth rate.

“Output could have been even higher but for the heavy rainfall in the last week of June across our mining areas,” said a senior executive of Coal India.

Total supplies during the quarter ended June 2023 were 187 mt, posting 5.3 per cent growth compared with 177.5 mt during Q1 FY22.

Supply to the non-power sector consumers during the quarter was 33.4 mt, growing at 34 per cent over the previous year.