Centre to upgrade 500 POs as part of 'Project Arrow'

The Centre will upgrade and rebrand around 500 post offices in the country in its bid to enhance the quality of service provided to customers. This upgrade is being done under ‘Project Arrow’ conceived in April, 2008, and already 1,000 branches have been upgraded till date under this project.

“We will upgrade 500 post offices and connect them with broadband along with a provision for more financial services,” Sachin Pilot, minister of state for communications and IT, said on the sidelines of inaugurating an upgraded post office in the city here. He, however, didn’t give any timeline and investment figure for this upgrade.

India Post is facing tough times on the back of penetration of mobile telephony and other technology-enabled services. “India Post still remains the major way of communication in rural areas along with service provider for hordes of financial services. So, we want to upgrade present post offices with broadband connection with addition of other financial services,” he said. Meanwhile, the ministry plans to upgrade around 80 post offices in Karnataka.

“We have upgraded 20 post offices in the state and remaining will be completed in various phases,” he added.