A K Garg, Director (Human Resources) of BSNL, has been appointed as Chairman and Managing Director of telecom PSU MTNL, company sources said today.

Garg replaces acting CMD Kuldip Singh.

Singh, the company's Technical Director, was given the additional charge of CMD following resignation of CMD R S P Sinha in January this year.

MTNL, which provides telecom services in Delhi and Mumbai circles, had not been able to take any major decision regarding the functioning of the firm in absence of a full time CMD, said sources.

Increasing competition from private players and rising wage costs have impacted MTNL in a major way and it has been losing revenues and market share on a constant basis.

The Telecom Minister is taking a keen interest in turning around loss making PSUs like BSNL and MTNL and has recently decided to have a monthly review of their operations and performance.

The government recently appointed R K Upadhyay CMD of BSNL, which operates telecom services nation-wide barring two metros -- Delhi and Mumbai.