The postal department of India has recently got license from Reserve Bank of India to set up their own ATMs in the country for cash dispensing services.

By the end of this year, that is by December around 10 post office ATMs are planned to be installed in Chennai. With this, gone would be the days when the customer had to stand for long hours in queue to withdraw cash from his postal savings account.

Customers would be allowed to withdraw money from these ATMs during postal working hours.

"Simultaneously, work shall also be competed at a similar pace in other metro cities. This is all part of Phase I of this project, which involves setting up of ATMS in head post offices all over the country, including cities and district head quarters. We expect it to be completed before March 2012," said a senior postal official.

"The plan is to give an image makeover to the post office as a separate and complete banking entity," said the official. It may however, take a few years before even remote rural areas have access to modern banking facilities. "After all, we have 1,55,000 branches all over the country. Modernising all of them will definitely take time," he added.