Post Office, Dak Seva Kendra

What is a Post Office (P.O.)?

Post Office (P.O.) is a customer service facility provided by the government, basically to handle customers' mail related needs. In India, post offices are known as India Post. A bouquet of services are offered by India Post in a cost-effective way.

The slogan of India Post is "Dak Seva Jan Seva". There are total 1,54,979 post offices in India.

Importance of Post Office

Post Offices handle mail related needs of their customers. Having their offices in far reached and rural areas, post offices are very important for the people in India. Post Offices in India are becoming high tech now-a-days and now they are not only medium of sending letters but also popular for different services including financial services.

Though e-mail has almost replaced the letters still the importance of written words cannot be ignored. Development of many courier services is also giving a big competition to post office specially in terms of charges and speed of delivery but they usually are limited to metro, urban and semi-urban areas. In far reached and rural areas, still the mails are being sent through post offices.

Classification of Post Offices

Post Offices have been classified in following 3 major categories/ types:

1. Head Post Office
2. Sub-Post Office (including E.D. Sub-Office)
3. Branch Post Office

Working of Post Office

Many types of works are done in the post offices. They provide mail related services like collection, ordering, arranging, processing and delivery of mails, letters, parcel and other articles. Such items can be sent as ordinary, registered or insured ones. They install post boxes at different locations so that you can drop your letters in them. Postman delivers the letters and other items at your address. They also sell postage stamps. Customers need to pay postage on items which they wish to be delivered anywhere in India or in the world and the post offices do that through their extensive network. As a medium of transportation of such documents, post offices use road, rail as well as airlines carriers. In their process network, there are 389 mail offices and 89 speed post hubs.

Post Offices also provide money remittances not only in India but in foreign countries also through money order, MO Videsh, EMO and IMO. They also provide some of the banking products and services like Time Deposits (FD), Recurring Deposits, Savings Deposits, MIS, PPF, etc. in which you can invest and get assured returns.

Post offices also offer different products such as Postal Life Insurance, Mutual Fund, Forex Services, ATMs, Jansuraksha Services, etc. Now they have also opened their Payments Bank called "India Post Payments Bank (IPPB)" which will provide more banking services to the customers.

Working Time of Post Offices in India

Due to varied service requirements of people located in different areas, it is not possible for all the post offices to maintain same timings across India. Post Office timings depends upon service requirements and total number of transactions taking place in a particular post office. therefore, it is at the discretion of the Head of that Circle to issue the instructions about the timings of post offices in his circle. Post offices generally work for less hours on Saturdays.

However, every post office displys a Citizen Charter in it's premises that details the timings for all kinds of transactions along with the timings of business hours of that particular post office. More or less, following timings are adopted by the post offices:

• Some GPOs and HPOs work from 08:00 hrs to 20:00 hrs
• Some MDGs work from 09:00 hrs to 16:00 hrs
• Some Circle offices work from 10:00 hrs to 17:00 hrs
• Some Non-delivery Post offices run from 10:30 hrs to 16:30 hrs
• Some Delivery Post offices work from 11:00 hrs to 18:00 hrs
• Some Rural Post offices work from 08:00 hrs to 14:30 hrs
• Some RMSs work from 20:00 hrs to 06:00 hrs (night hours)
• Some Offices work 24X7

Post Office Postal Charges

What is a PIN Code?

Postal Index Number (PIN Code) is a 6 digit post code of postal numbering system issued and used by India Post. It is an important part of any address in India. The PIN Code was introduced on August 15, 1972 by Shriram Bhikaji Velankar, an additional secretary in the Union Ministry of Communications. The PIN Code system was introduced with an objective to simplify the manual sorting and delivery of mail by eliminating confusion over incorrect addresses as well as similar place names.

There are 9 PIN regions in India, out of which the first 8 are geographical regions and the digit 9 is reserved for the Army Post Office(APO) and the Field Post Office(FPO).

You can understand its structure in the following manner:

• First digit indicates the region
• First 2 digits together indicate the sub region or one of the postal circles (states)
• First 3 digits indicate a sorting/ revenue district. They represent a specific geographical region
• Fourth digit indicates the service route i.e. the route on which a delivery office is located in the sorting district
• Last 2 digits indicate the delivery office within the sorting district starting from 01 standing for the General Post Office (GPO) or head office (HO)

For example the PIN Code of Indore is 452001:

• The first digit indicates the region = 4
• The first 2 digits indicate the sub region or postal circle Indore = 45
• The first 3 digits indicate sorting district = 452
• Fourth digit indicates the service route i.e. the route on which a delivery office is located in the sorting district = 0, This 0 is for offices in the core area of the sorting district
• Last 2 digits indicate the delivery office within the sorting district (Indore Head Office) = 01

Postal Department always insists you to mention the correct PIN Code of the addressee so that they can easily locate the address.

Categorization of Post Offices

In order to help easy search for a post office address and pin code, we have divided them into following 3 categories:

1. State wise
2. Disrict wise
3. City/ Place wise

State Wise Post Offiecs

• Post Office Service
• Post Office Finacial Products
• Post Office Primary Services
• Post Office Tools