MANGALORE: Come June, a different experience awaits people who frequent the office of Senior Superintendent of Post Offices at Balmatta here. With India Post on the verge of dedicating its first-ever Postal Finance Mart of the region to the nation, people wanting to avail umbrella services of the department will do so at different places at the mart.

Earlier, postal and monetary services provided by India Post were under the same roof. With the concept of Postal Finance Mart picking up, India Post has decided to segregate these services on the same premises. This will help customers walking into such marts to go about their business at leisure.

Besides, the mart will offer consultancy service. An exclusive investment desk has been set up at the mart. A person will guide customers on investing in postal instruments. While the niche financial services will be available in one section of the mart, the routine services will be on in the other part.

"This new concept will not inconvenience our customers," said N.R. Visalatchy, Senior Superintendent of Post Offices, Mangalore.

She told The Hindu here that the idea of Postal Finance Mart has come along well in States such as Tamil Nadu.

"One such mart is functioning in Bangalore and the other two will become operational in Mysore and Chitradurga shortly. Work on the mart is complete. We intend to dedicate it to use in the first week of June," she said.

While the mart here and those in Chitradurga and Mysore were sanctioned last financial year, they are being inaugurated this financial year.

On other niche services, she said people can buy and sell mutual funds.

Investment counters

"We are the trading agents for the Unit Trust of India (UTI). We achieved a business of Rs. 47 lakh in 21 days when UTI introduced its Contra Fund recently. South Karnataka region of India Post achieved a business of Rs. 3 crore and Karnataka Rs. 5 crore in this regard,'' she said.

India Post will offer the services of Oriental Insurance Company through these marts, she said. Besides, people can avail postal life insurance, children's life insurance and rural life insurance services. "This segregation of services will vastly help our customers," she added.

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