Jamshedpur : Get ready to be surprised with the postman coming to your doorstep to deliver a letter and seeking signature on his Android phone instead of on a sheet of paper.
Marching towards Digital India initiative, the Singhbhum division of India Post has started equipping its delivery men with Android phones, which will run a customised, GPS-enabled mobile application to track letters and parcels.
In a function organised at Bistupur GPO on Thursday, the authorities distributed about 180 sets among the delivery guys. R.L. Sinha, senior postmaster of Bistupur GPO said the initiative will help the postmen update information about the delivery instantly and enable customers to track the movement and know the status of delivery faster and that too on finger tips of their phones.
�The initiative has received an overwhelming response from across the country. So the department started implementing in Singhbhum division. Once the customer digitally signs on the mobile phone, the delivery details will be immediately uploaded to the central server and update all records,� informed Sinha adding that the new app will stop such malpractice by making every postman accountable. It will bring transparency to the system.
The senior postmaster went on to inform that after Jamshedpur, another 100 will be given to postmen in Seraikela-Kharsawan and West Singhbhum (also under Singhbhum division of India Post) by next month.
Sharing his delight over the initiative, a postman said, � When the entire nation is heading towards digital world how can the postal department be far behind. From past few years several initiatives have been taken to make the department and their teams adapt to hi-tech facilities and Android phone is one such major step in this direction. We will now devote ourselves to deliver enhanced service to cater needs of our customers�.
Another official at the Bistupur post office said the Postman app, which works only on Android OS, had been designed and developed by Centre of Excellence in Postal Technology (CEPT), Mysore.
Residents of Jamshedpur said they were happy to note about the new service. ” Though I used to rely on the postal department for delivery of letters but of late there were complaints over the service.
So I started taking service of private courier companies but now with the launch of mobile app, I would like to shift to the postal department for sending registered posts and parcels to ensure confirmed delivery,� noted Mahesh Agrawal, a trader of Jugsalai.