Chennai to have four more postal ATMs this month

Chennai:

Chennai will have four more Post Office Savings Bank ATM as postal
department is migrating to core banking solutions after its financial
revenue generated through money orders have been eaten away by net
banking and ATMs.



The city, which became the first to have a ATM, would have another
four in Tambaram, St Thomas Mount, Anna Road and Mylapore by this
month. The first ATM was being set up in T Nagar on February 2014.





“We are planning to have 20 more ATMs across the state and the city
will have four of them,” said Post Master general of Chennai City Region Merwin Alexander.



Talking about Money orders, Alexander says Tamil Nadu is the leading
state in India where around 15 lakh money order transactions happen.
It is followed by Karnataka, said Alexander.



He said Chennai region accounts for 40 per cent of such transactions
per month. “On an average Rs 80 crore worth of money order
transactions happen in Chennai region,” said Alexander.



He said that money orders are still relevant in Tamil Nadu as the
state government sends social security related transactions through
money orders. “The old people, the widows and the differently-abled
would face difficulty in accessing the ATMs so the state is using
money order services through which the cash is delivered at their door
step,” he said.



Alexander says that the social security transactions usually happens
with the tahsildar sending in the list of beneficiaries to the post
office who then send in the money orders to addresses mentioned in the
CD. He says that Washermenpet post office alone has 15,000 of such
transactions.



He said the age-old money order form has been done away with. “We now
send MOs electronically. “Instead of usual message section being
delivered by the postman, the electronic version has pre-formatted
message which is delivered electronically,” said Alexander.



Interestingly, the post office still has a clientele which is
dependent on ordinary money orders. “This is around 10 per cent,” says
Alexander.

He also highlighted that the religious agencies and charitable trusts
are also dependent on money orders,” he said.