Bhubaneswar: Nalco director finance Sridhar Patra has been selected for the top post of Nalco. The Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) on Wednesday has selected Patra for the Nalco CMD post of the public sector aluminium behemoth from among the four contenders.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by the prime minister will give its final approval to the appointment of Patra.

The present CMD TK Chand, who took over as CMD on July 2015, will be superannuated on November 30,2019.

The four senior executives of public sector undertakings in the race were SAIL’s commercial director Soma Mandal, Mecon’s CMD Atul Bhat and North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPC) finance director Shiva Shunmuganathan besides Nalco’s finance director Sridhar Patra. The four were shortlisted by the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB)for the interview on Wednesday.

Patra, who had worked with Odisha Mining Corporation and Indian Rare
Earth and THDC India, joined Nalco on September 1, 2018. Nalco under Patra as finance director has achieved a spectacular growth in posting profit. The company’s profit in Q1 FY 20 has surged by 29% to Rs 1732 crore, the best ever in a decade.