This assumes significance as the government-owned India Post
is into delivering mails and letters besides having banking and deposits
services. The post department’s transformation is crucial, given the
competition it is witnessing from private logistics players with regard
to its bread and butter business of delivering parcels, mails and letters.
“We need to transform ourselves from just a mail
business and a letter business. We have got to look at route optimisation,
multiple sources to be able to transport our services,” Scindia
said at an event by Public Affairs Forum of India (PAFI).
Shri Scindia said the government will be looking
at all potential services to increase the revenue of India Post, given that the
department has the potential to take services to the doorsteps of people in
rural and remote areas. Currently, the turnover of India Post is about Rs
12,000 crore and over the next 3-4 years, the government is planning to
increase it by 50-60%.
On BSNL, he said, the plan is to roll out 4G services by deploying
100,000 towers by the middle of next year. In the 100 days of the new government, BSNL has
deployed about 25,000-28,000 towers for 4G services, he said.
“With the tariff hikes, a lot of porting happened
from other players to BSNL. So, my key challenge is going to be that after the
network is rolled out, customer acquisition that we have done over the last
couple of months stays with BSNL,”
Scindia said.