In an effort to be more customer-friendly, post offices will soon go entirely online to facilitate access to speedy and reliable services across the State.
At present, most counter operations, including booking of Speed Post, is being done manually and updated online later. Once the Core System Integrator (CSI) project is in place, customers will have access to real time update of their articles booked from the time of booking to delivery. They can begin to track the articles within minutes of booking.
Rollout in Vellore
To be rolled out in Vellore division next week, the project is being implemented with the help of Tata Consultancy Services under the department’s IT modernisation programme. Officials of the Postal Department said this will improve tracking of articles, reduce duplication of work and prepare staff members of the volume to be delivered. This would also mean less paperwork in post offices.
On an average, nearly 32.41 crore articles, including registered posts, speed posts and articles are being handled in post offices across the State in a year. Of this, nearly 4.6 crore mails and articles are handled in Chennai post offices alone in a year.
R. Anand, Postmaster General, Chennai City Region, said the project will integrate all operations from customer transactions, human resource functions to accounting. This will enable allocation of manpower according to the volume of mails to be tackled.
Bulk booking
“We plan to implement the project in division-wise post offices. Those 45 offices falling under Vellore division would be integrated in the IT infrastructure project. Customers who book articles in bulk may even schedule pick up or delivery of mails through the system,” he said.
The CSI project will help avoid time lag in updating information and also help mail delivery without any delay.
There are nearly 2,833 post offices, including sub post-offices, across the State. Of this, nearly 600 post offices are located in the Chennai city region.
Once the urban post offices are covered, the project would be extended to nearly 9,300 branch post offices in rural areas of the State.
