Postcodes of India
Created | Updated Sep 19, 2014
This is not intended as a comprehensive list of PIN codes, instead as a simple guide.
PIN codes (short for Postal Index Number) are used by India Post to organise their service. They were introduced on August 15th, 1972.
Similarly to ZIP codes, one digit is not enough. Two digits are needed for organising states.
They are indexed as follows:
1 - Northern Region
11 - Delhi
12 and 13 - Haryana
14 to 16 - Punjab
17 - Himachal Pradesh
18 and 19 - Jammu and Kashmir
20 to 28 - Uttar Pradesh
29 - unused
30 to 34 - Rajasthan
35 - unused
36 to 39 - Gujarat
40 to 44 - Maharashtra
45 to 49 - Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh
50 to 53 - Andhra Pradesh
54 and 55 - unused
56 to 59 - Karnataka
60 to 64 - Tamil Nadu
65 and 66 - unused
67 to 69 - Kerala
70 to 74 - West Bengal
75 to 77 - Orissa
78 - Assam
79 - North Eastern
80 to 85 - Bihar and Jharkhand
86 to 89 - unused
As you can see, all two-digit codes are used except for 29,35,54,55,65,66,86,87,88 and 89. 90 to 99 are used by the Army Postal Service.
In a PIN code, the first two digits represent a state (as listed before), the next digit represents a postal district within this state, and the last three digits represent a post office number.
For example the post office of Jindva in Gandhinagar, Gujarat is mapped as post office 315, in postal district 2 in the 3rd region of Gujarat, making its PIN code 382315.
The History
India Post, while officialy founded on April 1st, 1774, reached a general beginning with the inception of the British Raj in 1858. In three years' time,India had almost 900 post offices carrying 45-50 million pieces of mail per year, or about 125,000 mail movements per day.
The post office superintendent at this time was based in Allahabad (the first of these appointed in 1870).
India also saw the world's first official airmail flight on February 18th, 1911. A French pilot named Henri Pequet, carried approximately 6,000 pieces of mail for a distance of 18 km (11.2 mi), a journey which took about 27 minutes.
Since Indian independence in 1945, India Post has established new campaigns to help anyone access the postal system, no matter where they live in India. In 2011, there were 154,866 post offices in India (of which 15,826 are in rural areas). India is also home to the highest post office in the world, at Hikkim in Himachal Pradesh (PIN code 172114). This office has an elevation of 4,700 m (15,419 ft).
For the 2011-12 financial year, India Post's revenue increased to 93,665,000,000 rupees (about US$1,590,000,000) and the company had 466,903 employees in 2011.
