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I have been searching for free/paid (preferably free) sources for postal code shapefiles for India.

Does anyone know where I can find one?

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This is probabaly not the answer you are looking for, but here it is:

You won't find them, since no one (not even the Postal Department) has Authentic Boundaries.

Pin codes in India are a way of indexing Post Offices. Multiple Post Offices can have one pin code, and one Post Office can deliver to Multiple Pincodes.

It's a Myth that there is such a thing as Pin Code boundaries, which form an mutually exclusive, and exhaustive polygon coverage of the country.

Some vendors offer this data for a price, but in my experience, that data is rubbish, and wrong in many areas that I have checked.

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    It is really the same in the USA. We just fake Zip Code Polys. They are really actually quite meaningless. – If you do not know- just GIS Nov 12 '14 at 3:57
  • @usertwoseventwothreenine: True, but you do get this polygon data from authentic sources in the US, which is not the case in India. – Devdatta Tengshe Nov 12 '14 at 3:59
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    I suppose Census counts as authentic. Interestingly in the USA many third parties sell the same rubbish data as well. – If you do not know- just GIS Nov 12 '14 at 4:00
  • The United States Census Provides Polygons for Zipcodes. check out www.boundaries-io.com – Jeryl Cook Dec 29 '17 at 22:38
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Postal boundaries for most Indian states are at http://postalgis.nic.in/view/

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  • Unfortunately they don't appear to be accurate at all. I Checked the boundaries around Tier 3 Cities like Pune & Jodhpur. – Devdatta Tengshe Apr 17 '18 at 10:40
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    This is worrying, given that the source is official. Do you think that errors are likely to be higher in urban areas where boundaries are more dense? – Sourav Sarkar Apr 18 '18 at 11:08
  • They seem to be accurate in Mumbai & New Delhi; I think they just haven't got around to mapping the Tier-2/Tier-3/Rural areas yet. – Devdatta Tengshe Apr 19 '18 at 5:20
  • Thank You! Actually, I am trying to map PIN CODES to Legislative Constituencies. I guess the probability of error in that case will be lower the larger the constituency. – Sourav Sarkar Apr 20 '18 at 6:14
  • Any idea about how can I download these shapefiles? I can't seem to find the link to download the shapefiles. – randomuser Apr 28 '20 at 11:57

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