Bidar head post office has begun preparations to provide Automated Teller Machine (ATM) facilities to depositors.

Bidar head post office has begun preparations to provide Automated Teller Machine (ATM) facilities to depositors. This, officials say, is among the initial steps to roll out the payment banking operations recently approved by the Reserve Bank of India.

India Post branches are already offering ATM services in cities including Bengaluru, Mysuru, Hubballi-Dharwad, and Kalaburagi. Bidar is included in the second phase in which over 1,000 ATMs are being installed.

As a first step, complete computerisation of data has been achieved. Core Banking solutions platforms are being built to integrate records of savings bank deposits with the department’s branches pan-India.

“We have demarcated a secure room for installing the ATM. The machine should be installed any time now,” S. S Kandimath, Superintendent of Posts, told The Hindu.

The district, referred to as ‘division’ in postal parlance, has 170 post offices and rural branches. The post offices and branches have a total of 3,50,004 Savings Bank accounts.

“This is our most popular scheme. We also offer eight other financial services and two insurance schemes,” Mr. Kandimath said. The recurring deposits, monthly income schemes, term deposits and public provident fund schemes add up to another two lakh accounts.

When the department has started issuing ATM cards, the first ones to get them were the employees. “We are also encouraging our regular customers to opt for these cards. A minimum of 1,000 cards are being issued in the first phase. We anticipate a higher demand and have sought release of more cards from the central office,” a senior officer said.