Abstract

                  India Post provides postal facilities within the reach of every citizen in the country through its vast network at an affordable price. Besides providing postal services, post offices perform agency functions like Savings Bank, payment of pension, sale of Cash Certificates etc. on behalf of other Ministries/ Departments of the Government of India/ Other Organizations. The Department of Posts, trading as India Post, is a government-operated postal system in India; it is generally referred to within India as "the post office". As of 31 March 2011, the Indian Postal Service had 1, 54,866 post offices, of which 1, 39,040 (89.78 percent) were in rural areas and 15,826 (10.22 percent) in urban areas. It had 25,464 departmental POs and 1, 29,402ED BPOs. At the time of independence, there were 23,344 post offices, primarily in urban areas.

The network has registered a six fold growth since independence, with the expansion's focus primarily in rural areas. On average, a post office serves an area of 21.23 square kilometers (8.20 sq mi) and a population of 7,114; it is the most widely-distributed postal system in the world. The large number is a result of a tradition of disparate postal systems, which were unified in the Indian Union after independence. Because of this far-flung reach and its presence in remote areas, the Indian postal service is also involved in other services (such as small-savings banking and financial services).

Key words: Postal services, patron, Coimbatore, network