12604 post offices in India computerized

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology, Gurudas Kamat, today said that the Department of Posts has computerized 12,604 post offices in the country as on March 31, 2010, as part of the IT modernization project under XI Five Year Plan.

The Department has submitted a proposal for approval of IT Project to computerize all post offices including all the rural post offices along with development of integrated modular software for all services and operations to be completed by September, 2012, said the minister. The proposal has been recommended by the Expenditure Finance Committee and is under the process of obtaining administrative approval from the Competent Authority.

The minister also said that as on March 31, 2010, 138,889 villages were having post offices out of the total number of 620,515 inhabited villages in the country. However, all inhabited villages have access to Postal facilities.

Meanwhile, the Department of Posts said that commemorative postage stamps issued by the India Post are now available for online purchase through eBay. It will have the price of the stamp, cost of packaging and transportation charges and charges payable to eBay, said an official statement. Currently approximately 100 stamps are available along with some philatelic ancillaries for online sale.

The minister also informed Parliament that the Government has plans to set up automatic mail processing centres for sorting of mail in the country during the Eleventh Five Year Plan.

In Delhi and West Bengal orders have already been placed for installation of Automated Mail Processing Systems with one Letter Sorting Machine (LSM) and one Mixed Mail Sorter (MMS) each at Delhi and Kolkata during 2009-2010, he said.

In  Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu replacement of existing Automated Mail Processing Systems with Letter Sorting Machine (LSM) and Mixed Mail Sorter (MMS)  at Mumbai and Chennai is proposed. In Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka it is proposed to have medium configuration machines at Hyderabad and Bangalore.

Kamat said the installation of machines is being done only in the Metros and bigger cities where there is heavy volume of mail.