NEW DELHI, March 10 (IANS): After upgrading 1,000 post offices across the country, India Post is giving a corporate look to 727 more with better services under one roof as part of its "Project Arrow", says Minister of State for Communications and IT Sachin Pilot.
"The look and feel of these post offices will be different," Pilot told IANS during an interaction, adding these offices will be fully computerised with additional features like electronic funds transfer, instant money order and computerised banking services.
"We picked some 1,000 post offices in 500 districts over the past year and spent Rs.160-odd crore. The look and feel, the aesthetics, the uniform have all changed. They are like a one-stop shop for people looking at a host of services," he said.
"Once the atmosphere is more welcoming, footfalls will increase. And once the footfalls increase, more revenue will come in. And once more revenue comes in, it motivates our employees," he added. "We have started getting results as well. In the last quarter of 2009, these 1,000 post offices saw a 23-percent jump in revenue," said the minister, who is passionate about promoting a culture of service with convenience and a smile in India Post.
The government has around 150,000 post offices across the country and more than 450,000 people working out of them. The idea is to make these offices find ways to counter the loss of revenues on account of telecom, Internet and courier businesses.
"Our job is not to make profit but deliver services to people. Fortunately, we still enjoy a lot of goodwill. We now send our people for training and give them incentives. We want them to be as self-sustaining as possible," Pilot said.
