BSNL CMD P K Purwar takes charge of MTNL

BSNL chairman and managing director P K Purwar has taken over additional charge of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, a regulatory filing said on Wednesday.

This is the third time Purwar has been given charge of MTNL CMD in the last six years.

"P K Purwar, CMD,BSNL has been entrusted the additional charge of CMD MTNL with effect from April 13, 2020 by the government of India, Department of Telecom," MTNL said in a regulatory filing.

The appointment of Purwar comes at a time when both the PSU are reeling under heavy debt despite the government offering them a relief package.

Accordingly, Purwar has taken over charge of CMD MTNL from April 15, 2020.

While MTNL has been able to resolve salary related issues and has only debt of around Rs 20,000 crore, BSNL is yet to clear dues of employees and vendors.

Purwar took charge as BSNL chairman in July 2019.

State-owned telecom firm BSNL's loss swelled by over 2.5 times to Rs 39,089 crore during the April-December 2019 period. The public sector telecom firm had recorded a loss of Rs 14,904 crore in the previous financial year 2018-19.