"This year we are expecting a net profit between Rs 1,500 crore to Rs 1,600 crore for the current financial year on a turnover of more than Rs 5,000 crore", MTNL chief executive, S Rajagopalan said.

Last year, MTNL had posted a net profit of Rs 1,215 crore on a turnover of about Rs 4,200 crore, he said. About MTNL's plan to operate in Chennai and Calcutta, he said the proposal was still with the government.

MTNL was well aware of growing competition with the entry of private operators, Rajagopalan said adding the company had embarked upon a customer care programme and was keen to become a "one-stop company for entire telecom services."

Chief general manager of MTNL, Delhi CV Rajan said the department had initiated a four-fold strategy to fight themounting competition.

The strategy is to provide telephone on demand, improvement in quality of service, providing value-added services and better customer care.

MTNL Delhi has plans to open as many as 12 new telephone exchanges in the remote areas of the capital to increase the capacity and clear the backlog of any waiting list in these areas, Rajan said adding that however, power availability was the main problem.

He also said a new telephone directory would be made available to the subscribers by the end of this month. It will be in three volumes.

From now onward, MTNL would be printing the directory on a yearly basis.