Night Air Mail service introduced at Nagpur

Four decades later, night 'airmail' service returns to Nagpur

Your birthday gifts, personal letters or business parcels could soon be reaching their destinations across India faster than ever before. India Post, the earlier Department of Post, has decided to resurrect the 'night airmail' service with Dr Babasheb Ambedkar International Airport at Nagpur as its hub. This bid to improve services amid stiff competition from private courier companies is slated to take off by July-end. Nagpur arrived on the aviation map exactly 60 years ago, in 1949. The city was playing host to the night airmail service just one year later, in 1950, with mail being exchanged here for further distribution. "In the legendary night airmail service, small planes the 28-seater Dakota carrying loads of postal mail and parcels from all four compass points of the country converged here. From Nagpur, the mail was distributed to nearby centres by rail and road, cutting down on delivery time drastically. The system was so good that people in Nagpur used to get letters from any part of the country in one day," say sources at the airport. This service was closed down some time in the 70s. Now, six decades down the line, the hub-and-spoke' model is said to have inspired India Post to start such a service once again. A senior India Post official told TOI, "India Post has acquired two freighter aircraft from Air India for faster delivery of mail. These two aircraft, bearing the India Post logo rather than the Air India emblem, will take off from Mumbai and Chennai to converge at Nagpur airport every evening." "Soon, a third aircraft that is already in service flying everything from handicrafts to foodgrain on the Kolkata-Guwahati route will come to Nagpur via Delhi, thus connecting the north and east part of the country to the city. The aircraft will then fly back to New Delhi, Guwahati and Kolkata after exchanging the postal cargo (pallettes)." "Every night before the freighters leave Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata centres at around 11:30pm, all mail from nearby cities will reach them," said the official. The first Boeing is slated to take off from Chennai, go to Bangalore and come to Nagpur. The second one will start from Mumbai and come to Nagpur directly. The third one will start from Kolkata go to Guwahati and Delhi before reaching Nagpur. Soon these aircraft will connect cities like Ahmedabad and Surat also to Nagpur, said an Air India official.

Source-Times Of India