In less than two months of assuming charge as the minister of state for communications and IT, Jyotiraditya Scindia has drawn up big plans to revamp the dusty old post offices. In a major initiative termed ‘Project Arrow’ to modernise and digitalise post offices, the department of post (DoP) has appointed McKinsey to reorganise the business and operations and O&M for the touch and feel, that is brand makeover. Around 500 post offices will be revamped in the first phase by December.

Making it clear, that this isn’t just a part of another election manifesto, given the looming general elections, Scindia said that he wanted to finish his groundwork before making any announcement. Now with plans on track, the project to modernise the first 50 post offices would be launched on August 17, he said. The remaining 450 post offices would be modernised by the year-end.

Apart from the changes in look and feel, improving the core efficiency such as ensuring timely delivery of money orders, removing problems in cash availability and providing instant, electronic and international money order services is going to be thrust of this revamp drive. To begin with, the postal department will sport a new slogan. The main aim of the revamp drive is to fix core responsibilities of the department. “We want to bring in efficiency and professionalism and ensure both employee as well as customer satisfaction,” Scindia said.

The post offices in their new avtaar are being envisaged as the points of convergence for IT, telecom and physical infrastructure. Post offices will have an IT kiosk with broadband connectivity, scanners, printers and other such equipment. “We want post office to be a customer-friendly service provider rather than a daunting task where a person finds himself in a maze and doesn’t have clue about where to get what from and till what time can he send his mails for a timely delivery,” he added.

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