Kolkata: The Department of Posts will soon introduce facilities for self-collection of parcels from the post office itself, at the preferred time of the recipient.
The pilot project in this regard will kick-off at New Town from February this year. A smart post office has come up at New Town that started its journey barely a year ago.
There have been instances when parcels could not be delivered to an address due to non-availability of the recipient, who was preoccupied with other priorities.
From now on, a person will be given the option of self-collection and in cases when the parcel cannot be delivered in two attempts, he/she will be contacted and asked to collect the item at their preferred time from the post office itself.
There will be facilities of electronic locker at the post office and a barcode similar to an OTP for ATM services will be sent to the recipient, which can be used for opening the locker and self-collection of the parcel.
The services will be available round-the-clock, so a person can collect the same even after office hours during the night.
"The project will be rolled out for all those living under the pin code in New Town. It will be gradually extended to other parts of the city depending upon the feedback," said Amitabh Singh, Post Master General (Kolkata).
On an average, 10 to 12 percent of the parcels fail delivery daily because of non-availability of the recipient at his/her mentioned address. The self-service facility is successfully working at some developed countries, bringing this number down significantly.
The department is consulting KPMG for streamlining its delivery system.
The West Bengal circle of the Department of Posts has seen a boom in parcel business, particularly in 2019.
A senior official of the department said that the number of parcel items has doubled in 2019 in the Kolkata circle, while the revenue has increased by 35 percent in comparison to 2018.