THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: General Post Office (GPO), Pulimoodu, which now flaunts a fresh look with a combination of red and white, is set to have the first postal ATM in Kerala state. The postal ATM being introduced by the department of posts as part of IT modernization project is expected to be inaugurated this week.
Senior officials with the department of post said that the trial run of the ATM has been successful. A total of 56 postal ATMs are coming up in the state, 51 head post offices and five sub-post offices, as part of modernization project. The customers with accounts will be issued ATM cards similar to bank ATMs with which transactions can be done.
In Thiruvananthapuram, postal ATMs will be installed at Neyyatinkara, Attingal, Balaramapuram and Pulimoodu. Any person having savings account with GPO can avail the service and the facility will be offered to customers with accounts in other post offices too as soon as the offices get migrated to CBS. Fifty-one head post offices have been migrated to core banking solutions (CBS) which means networking of branches, enabling customers to operate their accounts and avail banking services from any post office on CBS network, regardless of where they maintain their account.
"The basic concept is 'Anywhere and Anytime Banking. The customer is no more the customer of a particular post office," said an official associated with the project. The ATMs and the cards will carry the trademark red colour of India Post topped by the logo of the department. Any post office connected to core banking network can be brought under this service.
"We will also have mobile alerts just like using ATMs of banks and as soon as a transaction is done, alert will be issued on registered mobile number of the customer," the official said.
Postal ATMs being set up under CBS will provide various alternative delivery service channels, which reduce cost and time taken for the transactions. Currently banks' counter transaction costs are around Rs 45-50 per transaction while the transaction cost of withdrawal from an ATM is Rs 15-18.
