New Delhi, Jul 7 (PTI) Electricity customers in rural and semi-urban Odisha will be able to pay their bills digitally by using their Aadhaar number at Bharat Money Stores.

Bharat Money Stores, a proposition of IndusInd Bank-owned Bharat Financial Inclusion, offers banking and transaction platforms to people, especially in rural and remote areas.

For this, IndusInd Bank on Wednesday announced its partnership with TP Central Odisha Distribution Ltd (TPCODL) -- a joint venture between Tata Power and the Odisha government.

Under the partnership, a fully digital network will facilitate electricity bill payments across 300 semi-urban and rural regions in the eastern state.

IndusInd Bank through its vast network of Bharat Money Stores will enable nearly 30 lakh customers of TPCODL residing in semi-urban and rural areas of Odisha to walk into their nearest kirana store, and pay their electricity bills in a seamless manner, IndusInd Bank said in a release.

To begin with, the private sector lender has empanelled over 8,500 Bharat Money Stores to accept bill payments using Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) and aims to scale it up further over the next few months, it said.

IndusInd Bank has over 20 lakh customers based in rural and semi-urban locations of Odisha. The majority of them had to spend a lot of time and effort traversing long distances to make utility bill payments, Roopa Satish, Head - Corporate & Investment Banking, CSR & Sustainable Banking, IndusInd Bank said.

"Keeping this in view...we believe this will offer immense convenience to our rural customers as they will now be able to simply walk into their nearest kirana shop and make payments in a seamless manner," she added.

Satish said the bank will co-create more such initiatives in the near future for its customers.

"Bharat Money Stores will help the people pay their electricity bill at their nearest location. This service is to make our rural customers' payment process as convenient as possible," M Shenbagam, Chief Executive Officer, TP Central Odisha Distribution Ltd said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)