Transformation of village post offices into e-post centres soon
Saturday, 30 October 2010
Sonia H Moni
The postal department might start transforming 600 to 1000 village post offices into e-post centres as part of the government's move to narrow the digital divide between rural and urban areas.
Director General of Bangladesh Post Office (BPO) Mobasherur Rahman told the FE, the project has got nod at a project evaluation committee meeting recently and now it is waiting for approval of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC).
The BPO DG said: "We have taken an ambitious plan to transform 8,500 village post offices into full-fledged e-post centres and we are hopeful that total transformation activities might be completed by the current fiscal year."
Under the plan -- the biggest BPO project in its history -- some 8,500 rural post offices would be gradually turned into "post e-centres" fully furnished with electronic gadgets.
He said: "For more than a century village post offices only delivered mails, documents, parcels and transferred money orders. But e-centres would 'revolutionise' the way a rural post office operates in the country."
"Each of the selected post offices will have internet connectivity, a laptop, web-cam, photo printer, generator and solar panel," the DG said, adding there will be maintenance unit in every sub-district for repair jobs.
"Through the web-cam a villager can interact live with his migrant son anywhere in the world. The post offices which do not have electricity connections will be powered by solar panels," he said.
He said rural people would get health, agriculture and education-related information from the e-centres at the cheapest rate. "It will also help rural school and college students with advanced reading material."
Experts said the latest project was part of the 150-year-old department's intense soul-searching moves to reinvent itself in the wake of massive competition from courier services and mobile phones.
Due to the proliferation of the mobile phones, the BPO has been delivering 10 million fewer letters every year since 2000. Private courier services have also eaten up a big chunk of BPO's parcel services.
The department incurred a record loss of Tk 1.50 billion in the 2008-09 fiscal year, as its traditional businesses were being poached by private sector entities.
The BPO has around 10,000 post offices spread across the country. It employs some 40,000 postmen and runners, making it one of the biggest public sector employers in the country.
Mobasherur Rahman said his department's massive network has made it unique, as it is the only government organisation that has presence in every nook and cranny of the country.
The postal department might start transforming 600 to 1000 village post offices into e-post centres as part of the government's move to narrow the digital divide between rural and urban areas.
Director General of Bangladesh Post Office (BPO) Mobasherur Rahman told the FE, the project has got nod at a project evaluation committee meeting recently and now it is waiting for approval of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC).
The BPO DG said: "We have taken an ambitious plan to transform 8,500 village post offices into full-fledged e-post centres and we are hopeful that total transformation activities might be completed by the current fiscal year."
Under the plan -- the biggest BPO project in its history -- some 8,500 rural post offices would be gradually turned into "post e-centres" fully furnished with electronic gadgets.
He said: "For more than a century village post offices only delivered mails, documents, parcels and transferred money orders. But e-centres would 'revolutionise' the way a rural post office operates in the country."
"Each of the selected post offices will have internet connectivity, a laptop, web-cam, photo printer, generator and solar panel," the DG said, adding there will be maintenance unit in every sub-district for repair jobs.
"Through the web-cam a villager can interact live with his migrant son anywhere in the world. The post offices which do not have electricity connections will be powered by solar panels," he said.
He said rural people would get health, agriculture and education-related information from the e-centres at the cheapest rate. "It will also help rural school and college students with advanced reading material."
Experts said the latest project was part of the 150-year-old department's intense soul-searching moves to reinvent itself in the wake of massive competition from courier services and mobile phones.
Due to the proliferation of the mobile phones, the BPO has been delivering 10 million fewer letters every year since 2000. Private courier services have also eaten up a big chunk of BPO's parcel services.
The department incurred a record loss of Tk 1.50 billion in the 2008-09 fiscal year, as its traditional businesses were being poached by private sector entities.
The BPO has around 10,000 post offices spread across the country. It employs some 40,000 postmen and runners, making it one of the biggest public sector employers in the country.
Mobasherur Rahman said his department's massive network has made it unique, as it is the only government organisation that has presence in every nook and cranny of the country.