Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Plane that got stuck under a bridge in Durgapur once served entire North-East for India Post

Kolkata: The Boeing 737-200, that got stuck under a bridge in Durgapur on Tuesday, was used by India Post to cater to the entire Northeast between 2007 and 2011. The postal department, which leased the aircraft from the Indian Airlines or Indian, discontinued the service from April, 2011 as it was deemed not financially viable anymore.

India Post decided to run air freighters from Kolkata to Guwahati in 2007, to connect with the North-Eastern states faster. A separate brand Logistics Post Air was created and Kolkata Guwahati service became the pilot project. Private courier companies like Blue Dart and First Flight

Carriers had already been sending letters and parcels through separate freighters.

“It was not the first time the postal department used such a service. It had a scheme called “All-Up Scheme during the 1950s when Rafi Ahmed Kidwai was the first communication minister. The department ran four Dakota aircraft to connect between Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. That service gradually stopped after the 1970s,” said an official with the India Post.

“The plan to lease a plane came along when it was becoming difficult to deliver mails to the North-Eastern states. Use of aircraft for carrying mails was becoming popular overseas and many postal administrations benefitted from that. So, a Boeing with 15 tonne capacity was leased from the Indian Airlines or Indian,” said an officer with the India Post.
25/12/19 Rohit Khanna/Times of India
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