Post offices in the 22 circles across the country are in for a silent revolution. They will soon be connected by Core Banking Solutions (CBS) services. With this, the customers having accounts in different post offices can operate their accounts from anywhere in the country. The service will be made available at all the computerised post offices in the country following a simultaneous launch next year.

In Gujarat, 592 computerised post offices will offer CBS facility. The work related to the feeding of data on accounts has been completed in these branches, said Chief Post Master General Karuna Pillai, on Tuesday.

She said the batch-wise training of the officers from 34 divisions will be completed shortly. They have been trained in CBS at Hyderabad at the offices of the State Bank of India and the Administrative Staff College of India.

In the first phase, the service will be launched simultaneously at 100 post offices.

Five hundred post offices will be covered in the second phase and the remaining 12,000 post offices in the third and final phase.

By 2012, all 20 crore post office accounts in all categories like Public Provident Fund, savings accounts, Monthly Income Plan accounts and National Savings Certificate accounts will be operated through CBS, said sources in the postal department.

In Gujarat, there are 1.2 crore accounts in post offices. All officers in the Gujarat circle have been trained in CBS at Hyderabad.

Once operational, this will not only increase visibility of post offices in the financial sector but also help in doing away with the logistics problems faced by the people.

... contd.