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Courier, cargo shipment -- GATI pact with Maldives Post

Our Bureau

CHENNAI, Dec. 14.

GATI Ltd signed an MoU with Maldives Post Ltd for courier and cargo shipment between destinations in India and the Maldives.

Addressing newspersons here on Thursday, the Managing Director of GATI, Mr Mahendra Agarwal, said that the alliance would help in linking customers from the 340 locations, where GATI has branches in India to customers in the various islands of the archip elago nation. Maldives Post has a network of 200 offices and nine regional post offices in the islands.

``The alliance will result in the faster, safer and committed delivery of documents, letters, packages and cargo between the two countries,'' he said. To facilitate the service to Maldives, GATI will set up a hub at Thiruvananthapuram.

This was GATI's second tie-up that with a national postal system of a SAARC country, he said. Earlier, it had signed a similar MoU with the Bhutan Post. ``Our aim is to have arrangements with all the SAARC countries, and later with countries in the Gulf. ''

According to Mr Mohamed Shihab, Managing Director of Maldives Post Ltd, the service would have the fee of a courier service, and would be in addition to the regular postal service link that the two countries have.

Maldives Post, which started as a State-owned postal service, became a limited liability company in July 1994.

``The cooperation between the two companies will further strengthen the business relationship between the people of India and the Maldives,'' he said.

Mr Agarwal said that there had been a slowing down of the courier business since September, though the postal strike in the last few days had increased business for them.

Pic.: (From left) Mr Mohamed Shihab, Managing Director, Maldives Post, Mr Mahendra Agarwal, Managing Director, Gati Ltd, and Mr Pradeep Tiwari, Vice-President (Corporate Communications), Gati Cargo Management Services, at a press conference in Chennai on Thursday.

Picture by Bijoy Ghosh