Postal Dept to launch e-Post in five states

PUNE: The days when you had received birthday cards or an interview call

letters, a month too late, may soon be a passe. The Indian Postal Department

that has gained infamy for delivering late mails is all set to transform its

image, with the advent of the e-Post.

Internet has changed the way we communicate. Traditional letters have now

given way to e-mail, currently the fastest mode of communication. The Indian

Postal Department will now attempt to leverage this to its advantage and attempt

to bridge the digital divide through their latest offering, e-Post. The service

is mainly aimed at the non-IT savvy population to enable them to communicate

faster.

Indian Posts Deputy Director General (Technology) Col. V Sadasivam, is also

the project officer in charge of this ambitious project termed e-Post, which is

an attempt to extend the advantage of the Net in ensuring a faster means of

communication to the non-Net savvy populace.

The service is likely to be launched by the department in Maharashtra,

Gujarat, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, next month. The department has selected

200 sites across the country for the project. The department has also chosen 50

sites in Maharashtra for establishing e-Post offices.

"We have deliberately chosen these states as there is large number of

relatives of NRIs. Therefore they can use the net to send letters to their

relatives here, who do not have access to e-mail. The Postal Department will

provide a hard copy of the letter,'' he explained.

Each individual user is given an e-Post ID based on his or her geographical

address. Mails would then be received through the electronic mode. These mails

would then be downloaded, printed at the identified e-Post centers and sent for

delivery to the addressee. The customer would therefore be able to get his or

her mail in a matter of a few hours. The experiment will be launched on a pilot

basis in these five states after which the services will be extended to other

states.

In order to use this facility all one has to do is to become an account

holder. You can become a user by registering on-line through our Website

www.indiapost.org. The minimum payment is Rs 250. Credit card payment is

also accepted with a five per cent surcharge. One can also purchase the ePost

Prepaid Card from any of the head offices of the Postal Department throughout

the country and follow the directions on the card and on-screen. The cards are

available in the denominations of Rs 250, Rs 500, Rs 2,000, Rs 5,000 and Rs

10,000.

Customers also have the option of using their credit cards, to avail this

service. The department has entered into a tie-up with Bank of India for their

Master Card and Visa cards. Once the subscriber becomes an account holder, the

online authentication system will debit the money from the account according to

the usage. The Indian Posts has entered into a joint venture with the Hyderabad-based

Nettlinx Ltd, which is the largest ISP in Andhra Pradesh and has 12 point

presence and 200 marketing network nodes.