2000 people would be inducted in the executive cadre by way of internal promotions.

Coal India Ltd (CIL) is set to hire 7000 people in the current fiscal, up by about 17 percent from an average hiring of 6000 a year as the miner plans to recruit more executives, a top company official said.

The world's largest coal miner expects roles of executives becoming important with more modern, automated and environment-friendly mining activities, the official said.

Coal India is also in the process of adding 2000 people in the executive cadre through "internal promotions" as most of the legal hurdles relating to the promotion of non-executives have been removed, he said.

Coal India, the holding company of its eight subsidiaries, recruits on an average 1000 officers a year but this fiscal it has been decided to double the number of fresh hiring of executives to around 2000, the CIL official said.

"We have decided to increase the number of fresh executive hiring to 2000 as against 1000 being recruited per year by CIL on an average. Recruitment of about 400 executives has already been completed," he said.

He also said another 2000 people would be inducted in the executive cadre by way of internal promotions. "As most of the court orders in connection with the internal promotions of non-executives to executive cadre had been vacated, we have started to fill up vacancies which were pending for the last several years. About 2000 non-executives will be promoted," the CIL official told PTI.

Hiring of non-executives, which is done directly by its subsidiaries, has been at around 5000 per year for the last three years, the official said. "This year, on an average 5000 non-executives would also be recruited," the official said. With relaxation of FDI norms and opening up of the coal sector to commercial mining, the miner expects to strengthen its human resource in the next 3-4 years to meet the challenges.