Postmen to deliver more

In an innovative move the Department of Posts has joined hands with Idea Cellular and will soon be marketing Idea SIM cards from post offices in regions where the cell company operates.

There are also plans to tie up with Nokia to sell handsets in the future. This was revealed by Colonel Om Prakash, Post Master General (PMG) for Vidarbha region.

Officials from Idea Cellular had earlier approached the Maharashtra circle of the Department of Posts for a possible tie-up, said Prakash. The department stands to get three per cent commission on sale of every pre-paid Idea Cellular card.

Post offices will stock recharge vouchers of various denominations of Idea Cellular. The cellular company has already carried out a survey of post offices in Vidarbha where it will market its cards and re-charge coupons, Prakash said.

At present, only select main post offices will have this facility. If the experiment gets a success, then one can look forward to expansion of the plan, he said.

Postal employees stand to get an incentive for the "extra work" they will be putting in marketing the pre-paid cards.

Details of the incentive are being worked out, however as per a tentative plan, the clerk handling the actual sale will get 80 per cent of the amount decided while the supervisor will get 20 per cent.

Postal employees are at present undergoing training under the guidance of Idea Cellular. Nokia is reported to have offered a commission of 2.5 per cent per handset, but details are still not available.

There is also a proposal of post offices doubling as "delivery centres" of Kodak Colour Labs in semi-urban and rural areas.

The company officials have proposed that the postman who makes daily rounds in the villages and small towns can collect exposed rolls and bring it back for developing at the delivery post office where, if there is sufficient load, a lab would be set up.

However, as setting up of a photo lab will require a lot of space and heavy use of electricity, postal authorities are still working out costs before agreeing to Kodak's proposal.

Meanwhile, the postal department has also started marketing the non-life policies of Oriental Insurance from the beginning of the year.

Akola and Buldana are the two centres where these policies are being marketed at present and though the response is lukewarm, it should pick up towards the end of the financial year.

In the next phase, these policies will be marketed in Gondia, Bhandara and Nagpur districts in Vidarbha.