History meets modernity: 1.65L post offices don digital avatar

At Kashmere Gate General Post Office (GPO) — Delhi’s oldest British-era GPO — history meets modernity.

The 140-year-old heritage building with colonial architecture, high ceilings and wooden counters sees 400 to 500 visitors every day and has long been a symbol of India’s postal legacy. But behind its vintage counters, a digital transformation is now underway.

As part of the government initiative, all of India’s 1.65 lakh post offices, including Delhi’s Kashmere Gate GPO and India’s oldest — 251-year-old Kolkata GPO — have fully been digitised.

The process was launched earlier and today — August 4 — India Post completed the transition across all 1,65,000 post offices nationwide, marking a major step toward modernising the country’s oldest delivery network and strengthening its role in the fast-growing e-commerce logistics sector.

Union Minister of State for Communications and Rural Development Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar had recently chaired a review meeting on India Post’s Mail Operations, Parcel Operations and Business Strategy to hammer the transition. He had said, “These enhancements must enable India Post to offer seamless, end-to-end logistics services comparable to those of leading market players.”

India Post’s IT 2.0 brings real-time parcel tracking, digital proof of delivery, OTP-based authentication and online payment options. It also enables smooth integration with businesses through open APIs and offers tailored services for bulk customers. These upgrades aim to make postal services faster, more secure and user-friendly.

At the Delhi GPO, Chief Postmaster Gulshan Nagpal explained, “This transition enhances customer convenience through digital access.” He added that the post office now uses a new software system called Advanced Postal Technology (APT) 2.0, which replaces an older and less efficient system. “The employees went through a training programme and a pilot was run for a month with the new software,” Nagpal said.

India’s post offices — a legacy of the British Raj — were once filled with the scent of ink and paper. People queued up for inland letters, money orders and postcards, while red-vested postmen delivered news across cities and villages. Now, QR codes and biometric logins are replacing ink pads and hand-stamped ledgers.

To further improve delivery efficiency, India Post has also launched 344 centralised delivery centres in phase 1. These centres consolidate service areas and offer flexible options like morning and evening delivery, as well as Sunday and holiday delivery.

These upgrades are designed to meet modern expectations while staying true to the post office’s enduring role in Indian life.