Department of Post is seeking to computerise all the 1.55 lakh post offices in the country by the end of 2012, said Union Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Sachin Pilot today.

Pilot was talking to reporters after launching 3G services in seven cities of Gujarat through video conferencing here.

He said that of 1,55,015 post offices in the country, only 12,604 have been computerised so far, and Department of Posts aims to computerise the rest by the end of 2012.

Talking about telecom network, he said that only the government-owned companies such as BSNL were putting up infrastructure and providing connectivity in the remote areas, or Naxalism affected areas such as Jharkhand.

For facilitating e-governance in Gujarat, the Department of Information Technology, Government of India is contributing Rs 91.50 crore for setting up state-wide area network, and it would also spend Rs 55.04 crore for setting up State Data Centre in the state, he said.

Pilot added that 13,695 Common Service Centres (CSC) have already been set up in the state under the national e-governance programme.

BSNL presently has about 35 lakh subscribers in Gujarat, he said.