CLOSING OF RMS CENTRE

No Railway Mail Service in (RMS) office has been closed in the country. However, merger or physical relocation of some offices with other RMS offices has been carried out as part of operational needs. Detail of merged/ physically relocated offices are given in the following table.

Details of RMS Offices Merged/ Physically Relocated

S. No.	Name of RMS Office	Merged or Physically relocated	Merged/ Physically relocated with (Name of office)	City	State
1.	TD Sorting, Bangalore	Merged	Bangalore City RMS	Bangalore	Karnataka
2.	CRC Museum Road, Bangalore	Merged	Registration Centre, Bangalore City RMS	Bangalore	Karnataka
3.	Hyderabad Air Sorting, Hyderabad	Merged	Hyderabad Sorting	Hyderabad	Andhra Pradesh
4.	GDK Sorting, Delhi	Merged	Automated Mail Sorting Centre, Delhi	Delhi	Delhi
5.	Delhi RMS (Unregistered)	Merged	Automated Mail Sorting Centre, Delhi	Delhi	Delhi
6.	Delhi International Mail Centre	Physically relocated	Foreign Post, Delhi	Delhi	Delhi

The employees working in the RMS offices which have been merged/ physically relocated are working at the new location in the same city. This information was given in Lok Sabha today by Shri Sachin Pilot,Minister of State, Communication and Information Technology in response to a question.

BK/AT(PIB)

EXPANSION OF POSTAL AND TELECOM CIRCLES

There is no proposal for expansion of Postal Circles. However, modernization of Post Offices in all Postal Circles is underway. The Government has initiated a project called “Project Arrow” for modernization of Postal Circles across the country. The project envisages upgradation of post offices in urban and rural areas both in terms of upgrading and enhancing the quality of service in ‘core areas’ and improving their ‘look and feel’. The project aims at creating a conducive and friendly work environment both for the staff and the customers visiting the Post Offices, providing connectivity, and improving the service quality levels in the core business areas. The Government has also approved a proposal for IT modernization of all Post Offices of Department of Posts. During 2011-12, for computerization of Post Offices, an amount of Rs.90.39 crores approximately was spent. For Project Arrow, during 2012-13, an outlay of Rs.84.00 crores has been earmarked to cover 500 post offices throughout the country. The Government has approved the Modernization Project for a total plan out lay of Rs.1877.2 crores. The Modernization Project of the Department of Posts includes computerization of all the non-computerised Post Offices in the country including supply of Rural ICT Hardware devices and peripherals in the Branch Post Offices in the Rural Areas, development of scalable, integrated and modular software covering all the operations of Department of Posts and establishment of required IT infrastructure. The implementation of this Project has been proposed through eight RFPs. The functional RFPs are at various stages of finalization. The rollout of the Project is expected to be completed by 2014. Thereafter, Circle-wise allocation will be made As regards Telecom Circles, the information is being collected and will be presented immediately on being made available by Department of Telecommunications. This information was given in Lok Sabha today by Shri Sachin Pilot, the Minister of State, Communication and Information Technology in response to a question.

EXPANSION OF POSTAL SERVICES

The Government has formulated comprehensive working plan for the development, expansion and modernization of postal services. Under this, major activities , as laid out in XII Five Year Plan, include opening of branch Post Offices, setting up of Automatic Mail Processing Centers, development and deployment of Rural ICT solution, deployment of Core Banking, increasing insurance cover, establishment of Parcel and Logistics Post Hubs, up gradation of Speed Post Centers, Human Resource Training to Personnel, construction of Post offices/administrative offices, installation of Solar Power Packs and setting up of Postal Training Centers.

The proposed financial allocation for the XII Five Year Plan, in this regard is Rs. 12,000 crore. As for setting up of Speed Post Centres, the erstwhile Centres have been reconstructed in the form of Speed Post Sorting Hubs for operational purposes. Sorting hubs have been set up taking into account the following factors:-

(i) Speed Post Mail handled by a city/town

(ii) Connectivity of city/town in terms of air, rail and road.

(iii) Distance of a city proposed for sorting hub from post offices and other hubs; and

(iv) Mail generations potential of the city/town under consideration.

No new Speed Post Sorting Hubs are proposed for opening in the next two years. The total number of complaints received for speed post articles in 2011 are 1,48,381 out of which 67,420 were for late delivery and 80,961 for non-delivery. A mechanism has been set up in the Department of Posts for prompt disposal of complaints through Customer Care Centre in all Postal Divisions. Instructions are issued to Divisions for cent-percent handling and settlement of web-based complaints. While specific instances are resolved individually, system defects that come to notice are rectified to avoid recurrence of such instances.

This information was given in Lok Sabha today by Shri Sachin Pilot, the Minister of State, Communication and Information Technology in response to a question.