Imagine walking into a post office for a Disprin tablet or a bunch of fresh spinach or even a packet of condoms.
If Union minister of state for communications and IT Jyotiraditya Scindia, has his way, all this and more could be a reality under the Project Arrow launched last year.
The project that?s now into its third phase, entails a complete overhaul of the existing India post infrastructure at a reported investment of Rs 900 crore. All these will now be converted into local retail centres. The idea is to use the existing real estate that?s begun to wear a deserted look after the popularity of email services to profitably sell other merchandise, such as off-the-counter medicines, education schemes, auto loans and healthcare services.
A select few are also selling text books, ayurvedic medicines, gold coins and railway tickets. The plan later, according to ministry sources, is to look for joint ventures to turn post offices in remote villages into miniature shopping malls. Talk of the India retail story now unfolding from the hinterland.
Last year, the ministry hired two big consultants?Ogilvy & Mather and McKinsey?to give India Post a complete new corporate identity with a restructuring plan. The new logo, in bright red and yellow is the shape of a bird about to take flight. The tagline reads ?Giving Wings to Your Dreams.?
For starters, 52 post offices (out of 1,55,000) have been covered under the first phase of Project Arrow. ?We hope to unfold a higher level of customer satisfaction at the revamped branches,? Scindia told a clutch of reporters at the press conference called to announce the third phase of the project. During this phase, some 5,000 post offices will be turned into broadband cyber cafes by June 30. The first two phases covered 500 for a reported cost of Rs 86.56 crore.