The Department of Posts (DoP) is
planning to open 1,000 ATMs by March 2016. It will also bring 25,000
departmental post offices under the core banking system.
There are 25,000 department post
offices and 1.3 lakh rural branch offices under the DoP across the country, Press
Trust of India reported. "It has already rolled out
core banking systems in 12,441 post offices along with 300 ATMs. By March this
year, 1,000 ATMs will be rolled out across the country," an official said.
For financial inclusion, the
department will also set up a “payment bank” by March 2017.
Regardless of the location from
where the customers maintain their accounts, Core Banking Services (CBS) would
enable any customer to avail banking services and operate their individual
accounts on any post office available on their network.
In terms of rural post offices, the
Press Trust of India report further said all the 1.3 lakh post offices would be
provided “solar-powered biometric hand-held devices” by March
2017. By 31 March, 2017, supply of the devices to 20,000 odd rural
branch post offices would be completed.
India is known to have the largest
postal network in the world. The network has registered seven-fold
growth since independence, with a focus on expansion, primarily in the rural
areas. On an average, a post office serves 22 km of area and a
population of 8,211 people. According the official of India Post website.
