40,000 letter boxes bite the dust in rural India

Hyderabad: The red post letter boxes that were once ubiquitous in the hinterland are now a thing of the past, following a serious drop in the number of people using the traditional mail. In an RTI query by The Hans India, the postal department confirmed that it had phased out 40,689 post letter boxes across India between 2010 and 2014. In contrast, only 62 post letter boxes in urban areas were removed by the authorities.

The number of post letter boxes in 2011 was 5,74,452 and has come down to 5,33,763 in 2014. In urban areas, 62 letter boxes were dropped whereas 40,627 letter boxes were dropped in rural areas. A senior official from AP Postal Circle on anonymity said that phasing out of letter boxes has been continuing for the past few years because of the advent of private couriers, email and SMS. “The private couriers have replaced the Indian postal services.

Our service’s nowadays is only used for official communication and since there is less official business in rural areas many of the letter boxes have been removed. People are using postal services only if it is a registered post," he said. Andhra Pradesh circle, which includes both the Telugu-speaking states, lost 4,032 post letter boxes during this four-year period.

There were 49,722 letter boxes in 2011 which decreased to 46,680 in 2014. AP circle is found in a third place out of 22 postal circles across the country for having highest number of letter boxes. According to the postal circle wise statement on number of letter boxes, Uttar Pradesh postal circle tops in having a highest number with 70,218 boxes in 2014 and Lakshadweep postal circle with the lowest number with only 31 letter boxes.

Postal circles having largest number of Letter boxes

Postal Circle 2010 2014
Uttar Pradesh 86,571 70,216
Maharashtra 51,673 48,828
AP & TS 49,722 46,680
Total in India 5,74,452 5,33,763

*Statistics from Indian Postal Department