Government has allocated Rs 532 crore for IT Modernisation project of Post offices which are gearing up to offfer core banking sevices.
“Post offices will become part of the core banking solution and offer real time banking services. I propose to provide Rs 532 crore for the project in 2013-14,” Finance Minister P Chidambaram said while presenting the Budget proposals for the next fiscal in Parliament.
The total project cost approved by the Government is Rs 4,909 crore.
The Department of Post (DoP) has started deploying modern technology solution to develop core banking capability across post offices. As part of modernisation, it has set target of March 31 to computerise all departmental post offices.
India postal network has 1,54,822 post offices in the country. Of these, 1,39,086 are in rural areas and 15,736 are in urban regions.
There are around 90,000 bank branches in the country and provision of real-time banking services through postal network is estimated to triple the current banking network.
DoP has appointed Ernst and Young to prepare detailed project road-map for setting up of Post Banks and the report is expected to be in place by April.