State-controlled Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has undertaken a major executive reshuffle, transferring 839 executives across various departments.
The move, announced on May 2, 2025, aims to fill revenue-generating roles on priority, ensuring operational efficiency and business growth.
While BSNL cites promotions, long tenure at current locations, and employee requests as reasons for the transfers, employee groups have raised concerns about financial implications and potential disruptions to ongoing projects.
BSNL Having Strategic Focus on Revenue-Generating Roles
BSNL’s directive emphasizes that critical revenue-generating positions in enterprise business, consumer mobility, and consumer fixed access (CFA) verticals must be filled on priority.
The company aims to strengthen its financial performance by ensuring that key business functions operate at full capacity.
The transferred executives belong to telecom, finance, civil, electrical, architecture, and telecom factory streams, reflecting a broad restructuring effort across multiple operational areas.
Financial and Operational Concerns
Employee groups have expressed concerns that the large-scale transfers could cost BSNL approximately ₹12.5 crore in relocation allowances.
Additionally, they argue that arbitrary transfers may lead to instability in key roles, affecting productivity, project continuity, and customer service.
A senior executive, speaking anonymously, stated that many of the transferred professionals are trained experts responsible for core operations and maintenance.
The executive pointed out that these postings are selective rather than based on actual need.
This has led to questions about the decision-making process behind the reshuffle.
BSNL Employee Unions Plan Protests
The transfers come amid growing unrest among BSNL employees, with unions affiliated with Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) planning a two-month protest.
The protests stem from delays in BSNL’s commercial rollout of 4G and 5G services, challenges in the BharatNet III program, and declining enterprise business revenues.
BSNL has been struggling with subscriber losses, as customers increasingly port out to rival telecom operators due to service delays and network limitations.
As of February 2025, BSNL had 91 million wireless users, according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data.
Previous Transfer Trends and Future Outlook
This latest reshuffle is similar to the transfer that took place in June 2024, when BSNL relocated 475 employees.
Among them were 265 sub-divisional engineers (SDEs) and 265 divisional engineers (DEs).
However, only 20% of those employees were relieved at the time.
Despite concerns, BSNL expects a 20% revenue increase by Q4 FY25, driven by reduced finance costs and overall expenditure optimization.
The company remains focused on stabilizing operations and improving financial performance, even as employee groups push back against management decisions.
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