The Bunder post office – from where messages about arrival and departure of ships used to be sent by way of telegrams before the New Mangalore Port was formed – will soon become history.
Being one of the oldest of the city's post offices – said to be functioning from the British Era – is among the two to be closed down shortly. Presently functioning from the premises of the Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the post office not long ago boasted of huge turn over for postal department which had employed five to six persons. Today, it is manned by a single India Post staffer with little business.
The other one is the Kadri Hill Post Office on the premises of the hostel of the Karnataka Polytechnic (KPT), from where it has been functioning since 1962. Prior to this, it was functioning from the premises of the KPT itself.
Merger
While the services being offered at the Bunder post office will be merged with that of the Head Post Office at Pandeshwara, the services of the Kadri Hill post office will be merged with the Yeyyadi post office in the Yeyyadi Industrial Area.
The proposed closure is in line with the national policy of India Post to ensure a minimum distance of 1.5 km between two post offices, according to T.G. Naik, Superintendent of Post Offices, Mangalore Division of India Post.
Mr. Naik told The Hindu on Saturday that the actual closure of the two post offices would happen once the proposals sent by the division were approved. In fact, five post offices were identified for closure based on the poor business and distance in the Mangalore Division (comprising Mangalore taluk) with other post offices being Maracara Hill (Kadri), Mulki Bazar and Karnad near Mulky. “But we have defended and sought continuation of these three post offices,” Mr. Naik said.
He said the division defended continuation of the Maracara Hill and Mulky Bazar post offices saying they were located in residential areas serving a large number of people while the one in Karnad was proposed to be retained because of heritage value.
In fact, most of the post offices were running under loss and business was half the expenditure, Mr. Naik said. In order to boost business in all the 57 post offices and their 97 branches in the division, a special drive to increase recurring deposit (RD) accounts would be launched soon.
Each of them would be asked to open 300 new accounts, he said.
Bunder post office has 1,500 RD accounts and 20 senior citizen accounts. The Kadri Hill post office has 1800 RD accounts and 1,200 savings bank accounts and 450 monthly income scheme accounts.
