Coal India director (technical) Nagendra Kumar, who was also holding the dual charge of BCCL chairman-cum-managing director, died of a heart attack in Calcutta on Tuesday. He was 56.

Officials at BCCL said Kumar breathed his last during treatment at Apollo Hospital in Calcutta, where he was admitted in the morning after he complained of chest pain at his Rajarhat residence. He is survived by wife and two sons, both work with private firms in Bangalore.

"I received the news of his sudden demise around 9am and immediately left for Calcutta," B.K. Panda, director (personnel), BCCL, said. Kumar's colleagues at BCCL expressed shock over his untimely demise while members of Rashtriya Colliery Mazdoor Sangh called an emergency meeting to condole the lose.

A 1980-batch B.Tech (mining engineering) from ISM, Kumar had started his career as a junior executive trainee at CCL.

He was transferred to ECL as project officer in 2001, and was subsequently promoted as general manager in 2004 and chief general manager in 2007.

Kumar, who was scheduled to retire in 2019, was given the dual charge of BCCL CMD in August last year after the retirement of his predecessor Tapas Kumar Lahiry.