During the ongoing ‘National Postal week’, the Postal Department has pledged to launch several schemes in order to provide assistance to public. E-Rickshaw (a battery operated rickshaw service) is one such facility which will not only lessen the burden of the Postal Department but will also deliver heavy parcels on time.
In order to boost technology and revolutionise the postal services, e-rickshaw facility was started by the Postal Department at General Post Office on Tuesday.
At present only two e-rickshaw for delivering parcels will run in the city covering 12 Km radius. The e-rickshaw will also diminish the burden of traditional postmen who use bicycles to deliver letters and heavy parcels.
Citing about the benefits of e-rickshaw, Post Master General Anil Kumar asserted, “Presently we have 3,000 parcels pending with us. Through bi-cycle it is not possible to deliver all such parcels within a prescribed time frame. The e-rickshaw facility will save time and will speed up the delivering process.”
“400 parcels per day will be delivered by the e-rickshaw in two shifts. Few selected areas has been demarcated by the Postal Department and presently the services will be provided only at the General Post Office located at Shaheed Chowk, later on the services will be linked to other post offices too. In the first phase, the e-rickshaw will cover only 10 postal beats. However, after the success of the endeavor, the Postal Department will further expand the plan,” said Kumar.
Talking about the benefits of e-rickshaw from the environment aspects, Kumar added, “In order to conserve environment and apply the clean development mechanism theory, e-rickshaw will play an important role. Being Eco – friendly and economical, e-rickshaws can be the best alternative to petrol or diesel run vehicles as they are operated on battery. These rickshaws do not emit smoke and thus, will not contribute to the increasing air pollution. The batteries which will be used for the functioning of these rickshaws can be effectively recycled and thus, will solve the problem of battery disposal. It is also free noise pollution.”
On the occasion, the Post Master General also informed public about the benefits of other schemes such as Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojana, Sukanya Samridhi Yojana, Bima Yojana which is presently being given at the post offices. Few more essential services will be started by the postal services in the coming week which includes pan card services, payment of electricity bill, banking procedure and others.