New Delhi, Apr 1: The Department of Post (DoP) is planning to set up 1,000 automated teller machines (ATMs) across six states --Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu -- under its ongoing modernisation plan, according to a top official.
 "We will start execution of our modern technology programme across six circles by the end of this year. This will help in people getting core banking facility etc. We plan to have 1,000 ATMs in a phased manner. The process for this will start by the year-end," Secretary (Posts) Manjula Parasher said.
 DoP has selected five major technology companies for five of its technology advancement projects. It has issued Letter of Intent to Infosys for two projects which are Rural System and Financial Services Integration, Tata Consultancy Services for Change Management, Sify for Network Integration and Reliance Communications Infrastructure for Data Centre.
 The Department plans to start execution of some of these projects by end of this year across six states on pilot basis.
 DoP has got approval of Rs 1,877.20 crore to be spent across these projects over a period of two years and will seek additional funds when the need arises.
 "Funds of Rs 1,877.20 crore have been approved. We will go ahead with that. We may need more money because implementation in some of the cases may last over a period of six and half to nine years," she said.
 The secretary added the department will computerise all its 1.55 lakh post offices across the country by 2013 with over 24,000 department post offices already computerised by March.

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