Postal department mulls exclusive cargo plane for NE

Agartala, May 26 (UNI) The Department of Postal Services has decided to introduce aircraft, exclusively for carrying the postal consignments, including normal letters to and fro in the North Eastern states.

Postal department sources said here today that they had already procured an aircraft for the purpose and it would launch operation in August.

The decision to revive the postal business had been taken in the face of tough competition due to private courier services, sources said.

The Sources added that as per the plan, the plane would take off from Kolkata for Agartala every morning and it would move Imphal and Guwahati initially with postal consignments and finally, the flight would move back to Kolkata.

''We have a plan of connecting the cargo carrying flights with all other important stations of the region to ensure better and on time public services,'' a senior postal department official said.

According to him, after Guwahati, Agartala was the busiest station of the region and on an average, about a quintal of postal materials was dispatched daily from Tripura to other parts of the country.

At present, Indian and Jet Airways carried only the urgent postal stuff from Agartala and brought them from Kolkata and Guwahati. As a result, postal delivery took much time in Tripura, which encouraged even the government departments to switch over to private services.

UNI