As online retail has come of age in the country, e-commerce firms have begun to knock on the India Post doors for quick delivery of parcels. Though they have been using its services for some time in a small way, the Diwali sale saw a huge shift, with “almost all e-com firms” used our network to deliver the voluminous orders they got.

Seeing the spurt in demand, India Post has launched the Same Day parcel delivery service here on Wednesday and promises to expand the service to other cities and ‘next day delivery’ service to customers in the hinterland.

The company has earmarked about Rs 4,909 crore to deploy technologies in the next three years in order to digitise the services. “This is India Post 2.0. We are going to introduce technology in a big way in order to get connected with the corporates and the digital generation,” John Samuel, Member of Postal Services Board (Department of Posts), told Business Line here on Wednesday.

Waking up to the needs of this new retail players, the Department of Posts would further spread the same day parcel service to other parts as well. “You are used to see our postmen come to your places in the day time. As we launch the new service, you will see them coming in vans during 5 p.m.-9 p.m. in order to deliver the parcels,” he said.

“We are going to launch digital post offices that let you book the parcels and Speed Post consignments much easier. You can use smart phones to complete some tasks, reducing human intervention,” he said.

Samuel, who was here to formally launch the Same Day parcel delivery service, said the service would initially be available in a few post offices and would be expanded to other areas. In a later stage, vans would ply to other parts of the State too to offer ‘next day’ delivery service.

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