How Postal Index Number or PIN Codes are generated in India?

A Postal Index Number or PIN or Pin code is a code in the post office numbering or post code system used by India Post (The Indian postal administration) to deliver the letter. The system was introduced to simplify the delivery of mail by eliminating confusion over incorrect addresses, similar place names and different languages used by the public. Currently India has 6 digit post code and soon it will be converted in 8 digits.

How to identify Postal Index Number (PIN) in India

Postal Index Number (PIN) is a six digit code used by Indian Postal services. It was devised on 15 August, 1972. At present, the country has 9 Postal (PIN) zones out of which 8 represent different geographical areas and the last one is reserved for providing the postal services to the armed forces. The first digit of the postal code represents one of the many geographical areas. The second digit represents the postal circles (States) or the sub areas. The third digit indicates the district and the last three digits are the codes for post offices.

After following the below mentioned steps, we can identify a PIN code:-

Example:- If the PIN code is 500072, it can be read as:-

5: indicates a region of South India

50: indicates the State of Telangana

500: indicates the Rangareddy district

072: indicate the post office located in KPHB colony of this area.

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Present situation of Post Offices in Country is as follows:-

India has the world’s largest postal network. Up to 31^st March, 2016, there have been 1, 54,882 post offices out of which 1, 39,182 are located in rural areas. At the time of independence India had only 23,344 post offices most of which were located in urban areas. Since independence, there have been seven folds increase in the number of post offices in India the majority of which have been set up in rural areas. Currently, there is a post office located at about 21.22 square kilometer for about 8221 people.

Following are the nine postal geographical areas in India:-

Following are the corresponding PIN Numbers of various areas:-

Government is planning to add two more digits to PIN numbers which will help in indicating the locality to postmen and thus increasing the digits from six to eight. The last two digits would be between 02 to 99. This will not only help in smooth delivery of posts but also facilitate the functioning of postal department when they start using machines. This experiment has been started at selected locations and will soon be launched across the country.

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