Travel Letter Box - postal department's initative

Traveling Letter Box (TLB), an initiative of department of post, promises to deliver the letter on the same day for short distances.

The postal department’s new initiative appears to have helped to revive the letter writing. 

Traveling Letter Box (TLB), an initiative of department of post, promises to deliver the letter on the same day for short distances. All one has to do is to drop the letter in a box in one of the five short-haul trains. 

Charles Lobo, Chief Postmaster General, Karnataka Circle on Tuesday said that the department started the TLB concept on February 13 is available inMadras Mail, Rani Chennamma Express, Netravathi express, Hubli to Vijaywada and Bengaluru to Coimbatore trains. 

“This has become popular and every day at least 200 letters are carried on every train. This service is limited only to those trains which carried mails before too,” Lobo added.

On selection of these particula trains, Lobo said: ``Earlier these trains used to carry mail in sacks. The mails were sorted at the stations before being dispatched to individuals. As people know their destination, one can drop the letter in the TLB in the train to ensure quick delivery.

POST CROSS:

To tap young generation in an era of digitisation, the department is popularising Post Cross, an online pen pal club. 

"This is similar to the pen pals concept. It started ten years ago. We are aggresively promoting it now. One can register on the post crossing website, become pen friends with others across globe and send picture postcards. There are 6.70 lakh members globally, of which over 1,000 are from Bengaluru alone,” Lobo said. 

NEW SPECIAL COVERS: 

Earlier, Lobo released three special postal covers on the occasion of World Heritage Day. The covers include Keerthinarayana temple in Talakad, Halebeedu Hoysaleshwara Temple and Chennakeshava temple in Belur. S Rajendra Kumar, Postmaster General, South Karnataka Region and Arun Raj T, Superintending Archaeologist, Archaeological Survey of India, Bengaluru Circle were present. Raj said that the postal department and ASI were tying up to promote archaeology. Lobo said that during Mysuru Anche, postmen also also worked for intelligence wing.

"As they travel long distances and visit remote villages, postmen would bring information from everywhere. But this stopped over the years. They can even today help in collecting information and preserving heritage sites,’’ he said.