Private airlines to carry mail
Disillusioned with the fixed quota of mail delivery given by Indian airlines, the West Bengal postal circle will depend more and more upon private airlines for its mail delivery. said post master general (mail management) S.K. Das while speaking to TNN.
The decision relates mainly to the express segment like express parcel, business mail and speedpost that are heavier and carry more weight.
Since they constitute the main revenue of the department, the postal services will not compromise on such delivery. IA, at present, carries around 50 per cent of both incoming and outgoing mails through Kolkata.
The main crisis faced by the department due to quota fixation is related to those mails to be delivered to the north east and Port Blair. In absence of direct flights between north India and many of these places, all mail coming from the north aimed to be delivered in these places, first come to Kolkata and then are delivered to the respective destinations. (Direct flights exists between Guwahati and north only).
The department had to hire the services of Jet Airways for delivering the Port Blair bound mails recently because IAs flights ran for thrice a week only from Kolkata.
Moreover, IA had fixed a qoata of only 500 Kg each day, while the weight of these mails at times reached even 2,500 Kg. Jet airways runs its flights on those days when there is no flight of IA to Port Blair.
Although the flights reach Port Blair via Chennai, no extra charge is charged for the roundabout trip.
The department has a similar understanding with Jet Airways in the north east where there is a huge gap in the quantam of mails delivered and the actual demand of mails although such private services are not run daily from Kolkata.
Although IA has a daily flight to Guwahati, such daily services are not extend to other cities. For example, there are two flights to Aizwal with a quota of 200 Kg in each flight.
Silchar has two flights with a quota of 250 Kg and 200 Kg respectively. In Agartala, although the qoata is 700 kg, flights are not run daily.
The department has already taken up the matter with IA. Das said that the mails which cannot be delivered due to fixation of quota are delivered to Gwuahati from Kolkata from where they are delivered to their respective destinations.
