India Post gears up to revive courier biz

Travelling in air-conditioned trains will soon not be restricted to passengers only, even the parcels booked with Department of Posts (DoP) will be delivered across the country through AC trains.

The postal department will soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indian Railways to this effect, under which Railways will reserve a dedicated compartment in all Shatabdis and Rajdhanis for the delivery of the parcels, I M G Kan, secretary, DoP, said.

DoP would also sign another MoU with the Indian Railways this month, which will enable reservation of train tickets through its post offices across the country.

"We will sign two MoUs with the Indian Railways for the delivery of our parcels in AC trains -- Shatabdi and Rajdhani and booking of train tickets through our postal network by the end of this month," he said.

With this set up, we would be able to deliver the parcels in a fixed time frame and in a secured manner, Kan said.

With these new initiatives among others, DoP expects to do away with its budgetary deficit of Rs 1,200 crore in the next 2-3 years and establish a stronger foothold in the Indian market, he added.

In order to streamline its operations and achieve a higher degree of competitiveness, DoP would also invest Rs 6,000 crore for technology upgrade across its postal network.

"India Post strongly needs to enhance its technology to compete with the private players," he said, adding, "We have put forward our proposal to the Planning Commission for consideration in the 11th Five-Year Plan".