The Department of Posts has decided to develop its three acre premises at Krishnalanka into a big logistics hub for the region. The department is gearing up to take advantage of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s announcement in the State Assembly that the new capital would be developed around Vijayawada.
The response from customers has been encouraging after the department launched its operations on a small scale four months ago. As orders started pouring in from different places in the region registering an increase of 20 per cent every month, the department wanted to transform its Krishnalanka premises into the main logistics centre.
Plans have already been drawn up for procurement of packaging and stamping machinery, battery-operated forklift for loading and unloading parcels, weighing machines and computers. Construction of a warehouse is also in progress, said officials.
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They explained the department, presently, was providing logistics services to Hyderabad-Vijayawada-Chennai and Vijayawada-Visakhapatnam. “We are delivering parcels pertaining to gift and fancy items, books, seeds, clothes, paints and other products to clients concerned. Restricted products like acids and chemicals will not be allowed,” said Assistant Superintendent (Business Development) V.S.L. Narasimha Rao.
For instance, if a client wants to deliver fancy items weighing 100 kg to Visakhapatnam from Vijayawada, he has to pay Rs.400. “We are collecting payment by calculating the total product weight and number of kilometres travelled to deliver the parcel,” said another official. While going to Visakhapatnam, the parcel delivery vehicle will stop at 14 places to either collect or deliver parcels, the official said.
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“We are in break even period and we feel that we will get more revenue after getting orders in bulk in the coming months,” the official observed.