Thirty-five years, three subsidiaries and a Rs-thousand-crore supply chain: the mining engineer who looks after procurement giant machines, explosives and tyres at Coal India Limited
A Rourkela engineer’s first posting
Sk Maimud Alli’s story begins with a degree and a date. He earned his B.Sc. Engineering in Mining in 1990 from NIT Rourkela, formerly known as REC Rourkela, and on 10 October 1990 he joined Coal India Limited as a Junior Executive Trainee (Mining), posted at South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL). His first years were spent in the underground mines, the hardest and least forgiving part of the coal business, where a young engineer learns that a mine is run by discipline and by the people who work in it. Having begun his career underground, Alli later carried a close understanding of how equipment, explosives and consumables are actually used at the face into an office where he would decide how they are bought.
Odisha, opencast and a change of cadre
In December 1996 he was transferred from SECL to Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), Odisha’s coal powerhouse, where he worked in opencast mines, the large-scale operations that now produce most of India’s coal. A turning point came in March 2000, when he moved to the Materials Management (MM) cadre. From then on, his career ran through procurement and stores rather than the mine face. He worked as Depot Officer and Staff Officer in various stores and areas of MCL. Later he added a formal management qualification, completing MBA in HR from Sambalpur University in 2010.
A stint in vigilance, then the move to Kolkata
From 2017 to 2019, Alli had a brief two-year stint in the Vigilance Division, an assignment that tests an officer’s grasp of systems, documentation and probity, qualities that matter in a function handling very large contracts. He also served at the MCL headquarters during 2021-23, learning the critical business of inventory, purchase and supply. On promotion to General Manager (MM), he was transferred from MCL to the Coal India headquarters in May 2023, shifting from subsidiary-level operations to the parent company’s policy and procurement desk. In April 2025 he took charge as Head of Department (MM) and, according to his profile, has worked since August 2025 as Executive Director (MM).
Joining the senior management ranks
Coal India formally announced the elevation on 28 August 2025 through a disclosure to the stock exchanges under SEBI’s listing regulations, placing him among its Senior Management Personnel, the level directly below the Board of Directors. The promotion also fits a pattern at the Maharatna company of elevating homegrown officers. During his little over three and a half decades tenure, he rose from trainee to Senior Management Personnel, just below the Board Level.
What the Materials Management department actually does
As Head of the MM Department, Alli looks after the procurement of high-capacity heavy earth-moving machinery (HEMM), explosives in bulk and cartridge form along with accessories, the long-term running contract with M/s IOCL for explosives, and off-the-road (OTR) tyres. He also deals with imported consignments, including timely payment of customs duties. He is responsible for framing the policy on procurement and stores, and for implementing government policies, guidelines and initiatives across Coal India.
The scale of the purchasing task
The numbers around his portfolio are large. In 2025-26, Coal India Limited concluded Running Contracts for supply of Bulk Explosives valuing to Rs. 11806 Cr. These are the kind of contracts that sit within the explosives procurement domain his department oversees. On heavy machinery, Coal India’s strategy has been to cut reliance on imports and in compliance to Make in India initiatives by GoI, trial orders for equipment such as wheel dozers, crawler dozers, motor graders and tyre handlers were placed.
Transparency, policy and the road ahead
Procurement at Coal India is also a story of digitisation. Government figures show Coal India and its subsidiaries stood first in procurement through the Government e-Marketplace since 2023-24. For an officer who has spent time in vigilance and now frames the company’s procurement and stores policy, the combined challenge is to keep buying fast, to buy Indian wherever quality allows, and to keep every rupee traceable. With Coal India among the world’s largest coal producers and demand for coal expected to stay strong for years, the equipment, explosives and tyres his department buys will remain central to output. Alli’s career, from an underground mine in SECL to a seat in the Coal India senior management, suggests an officer who knows the system from both ends, as a user of what is bought and now as the person who buys it.
