Post Offices, Letter Boxes, Strength of Establishment and Postal Mail Traffic during 2000-01 to 2011-12

October 10, 2014

Author: OGD PMU Team

The number of Post Offices has almost been stagnant, showing a negligible decline from 154919 in 2000-01 to 154822 in 2011-2012. The number of Letter Boxes (permanent) has declined from 595286 in 2000-01 to 562075 in 2011-2012. Similarly, the number of total strength of establishments has declined from 593878 in 2000-01 to 474325 in 2011-2012.

The Total Postal Mail Traffic has declined from 1424 crores in 2000-01 to 637 crores in 2011-2012. Thus, the overall cost has been controlled to an extent. This is evident from the fact that the decline in case of Post offices, Letter boxes (permanent) and Postal Mail Traffic are to the tune of 97 (-0.06%) and 33211 (-5.58%) and -787 crores (-55.26%), respectively. On the other hand, the decline in case of total strength of establishments is to the tune of 119553 (-20.13%) during the period.

Moreover, the entire trend of the stagnation/decline in the number of Post Offices, Letter Boxes and establishments, has to be, necessarily, viewed in the backdrop of the biggest megatrend of last decade in communication i. e. the telecom revolution spanning emails and mobile communication. This has adversely affected the number of letters being posted and consequently, the need of postal services.

Note: Original data source: Department of Posts, Ministry of Communications & IT; Traffic figures of shown in tables may not tally due rounding off.