Guj post offices to sell agri insurance, movie tickets

As part of its drive to offer more products through post offices in Gujarat, India Post, the world’s largest postal service with a massive network of 15,000 post offices, is planning to sell agriculture insurance products to the farmers in the state, besides offering movie tickets to the urban populace.

“Apart from passport applications, we have started selling gold coins and offering Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) price quotes to the farmers. Now, we are weighing various options to sell agriculture insurance products to farmers and movie tickets in cities,” said Karuna Pillai, chief postmaster general, Gujarat circle. “We are in talks with Delhi-based Agricultural Insurance Company of India (AICI) for offering agri insurance products to the farmers,” she added. India Post has already implemented this initiative in Karnataka.

In order to leverage its wide network of post offices, India Post, in collaboration with ARM I Solutions Private Limited, launched the Genie Ease-Ticket service in Gujarat on Saturday.

Genie Ease-Ticket service is already available in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. In Phase-I, 232 post offices in Gujarat will sell train, bus and air tickets. India Post has 9,056 post offices in the state. “Chartered bus is yet another service that we are mulling to start,” she said.

In Gujarat, India Post generated revenues of nearly Rs 125 crore by selling passport forms, gold coins and aloe Vera products. “The target for 2009-10 is Rs 150 crore,” Pillai said.

On the future plans of the India Post and ARM I tie-up, Usman Fayaz, chairman, ARM I Solutions, said, “We are looking at offering the Genie Ease-Ticket service to 20,000 post offices across the country.

“Our modest start in south Indian post offices for ticket bookings have generated enthusiastic response from the customers. After Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh will be the next state for this service,” Genie Ease-Ticket said.