India gets its first post office cafe in Kolkata, move to ‘strengthen connect with current generation’

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Kolkata GPO cafe will be open from 10 am to 7 pm and will be run by the in-house catering department

India gets its first post office cafe in Kolkata, move to 'strengthen connect with current generation'

GPO Kolkata. Image credit: Schwiki/Wikipedia

The Indian Postal Department (IPO) has opened a new cafe at the famous General Post Office (GPO) building in Kolkata. Named as Siuli (a popular trinket-shaped flower of saffron and white colour), this parcel cafe, was inaugurated earlier this week to serve as a philatelic ancillary shop.

India’s first post office cafe will be open from 10 am to 7 pm and will be run by the in-house catering department. Earlier, the GPO used to run a small staff canteen at a corner of the hall, while the rest of the hall was used as a counter for philatelic ancillaries, including cushions, coasters, brass plates, mugs and stamps. However, these items will still continue to be on sale at the cafe by an in-house team.

“The café is not an ornamental one, it has parcel booking counters which are completely functional. The idea is to strengthen our ties with the current generation,” Niraj Kumar, Postmaster-General of Kolkata Region, told The Hindu. He further called the cafe a step towards betterment of the people.

The highlight of the cafe is its brightly coloured wooden furniture and sofa seats for about 34 people across the 1,450 sq ft space. An ample distancing will also be maintained from each table setting.

J Charukesi, chief postmaster general, West Bengal circle, informed that they had a brain-storming session last year in New Delhi regarding the same. The meeting was held to boost the parcel business in the city and this idea was put forward by them, he added.

This is the first time in the country wherein packaging facility will be offered by India Post. Through this, customer’s parcels no longer have to depend on private companies who charge an exorbitant price.

Reports suggest that same-day delivery service across the city has been launched at six post offices which are Park Street, Alipore, Burrabazar, Esplanade and Dum Dum, other than GPO. To avail the service, a customer needs to post the parcel by noon and be addressed within the jurisdiction of the GPO. The parcel will be delivered the same day to the given address.

India has the largest postal network in the world with 154,965 Post Offices (as on 31.03.2017) as per India Post website. An annual report from the India Post reveals that there has been a decline in the mail volume in the past few years.

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