Need for speed: India Post acquires two aircraft on its own

Aiming to improve its services amid stiff competition from private couriers, the Indian postal service, or India Post as it now calls itself, has rented two freighters from Air India for speedier delivery of mail.

The two aircraft, which will bear the India Post logo rather than that of Air India, will initially take off from Mumbai and Chennai. "The aim is to have a more reliable service,'' according Manjula Parashar, chief general manager, mail business, at the postal directorate in Delhi.

The acquisitions are part of 'project arrow', which seeks to transform the India Post infrastructure across the country, with an estimated investment of Rs900 crore. It aims at revitalising the organisation, capitalising on its strengths and recognising and dealing with the weak areas of the department.

Two of Air India's old Boeing 737-200s have been converted into India Post freighters, Jitendra Bhargava, spokesperson for Air India, said that with a capacity of 15 tonnes each, the planes will connect cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Surat and Nagpur.

According to a report in The Times of India , the cue for launching this service came from the success of India Post's first such aircraft launched in 2007, which flies everything from handicrafts to foodgrain on the Kolkata-Guwahati route.

As a result, birthday gifts reached the same day, businesses prospered, and the largely neglected north-eastern states were brought closer to mainstream India. The services of this existing aircraft will be extended from next month to cover Delhi and Nagpur.