India Post gearing up to provide services at doorstep, open 10k more post offices: Secretary

India Post is working on projects and technologies to provide government services at the doorstep and add 10,000 post offices this year to enhance its reach, a top official of the department said on Thursday.

Department of Posts Secretary Aman Sharma at a CII conference said that the government has provided the department with Rs 5,200 crore for the modernisation of the post offices using technology.

"We have recently completed delivery through drones in Gujarat. The government has asked us to take forward the IT project that we started in 2012. The postal and various government services will be soon given on doorsteps. "Rather than people coming to post offices, with the help of technology, services will be delivered on their doorsteps," Sharma said.

He said that digital transformation is going to be the way forward and the government is very bullish on using technology to provide services to citizens. During the pandemic, India Post delivered more than Rs 20,000 crore to the doorstep of people using Aadhaar enabled payment systems.

"Government is asking us to enhance our reach further and open more post offices. We have just got permission to open 10,000 more post offices. These will be brick and mortar structures in far-flung areas. The government wants banking and financial services to be available to people within 5 kilometres of their dwelling. Therefore, we are setting up more post offices," Sharma said. The new 10,000 post offices will be opened during the current financial year, which will take the total number of post offices in India to around 1.7 lakh.