Over 60,000 employees have applied for Voluntary RetirementScheme (VRS) in BSNL and MTNL, telecom secretary Anshu Prakash said on Friday.Outof this, a little over 57,000 employees are from BSNL and around 3,000 fromMTNL, Prakash said on the sidelines of a Department of Telecom (DoT) event.

He said the VRS is very attractively designed and hasreceived "unprecedented" response from the employees. Thegovernment's overall target stood at 94,000 from both the PSUs, he said.

Last month the government had approved a plum Rs 69,000crore revival package for BSNL and MTNL that includes merging the twoloss-making firms, monetising their assets and offering VRS to employees sothat the combined entity turns profitable in two years.

In all, nearly one lakh BSNL employees are eligible to applyfor VRS out of its total staff strength of 1.76 lakh. The scheme will be opentill December 3.BSNL has 1.76 lakh employees, of which some 1.06 lakh are over50 years of age. The telco is keen that 80 per cent of the employees should optfor VRS.

Employees above the age of 53.5 years will get 125 per centof their salary, which they could have earned in the balance period of theirservice. Employees in the age bracket of 50 to 53.5 years opting for VRS willget benefit in the range of 80 to 100 per cent of the remuneration to be paidin the balance period of their service.

For employees over 55 years of age opting for VRS, thepension will be commuted only when they attain 60 years of age (the currentretirement age).