Inaugurating the newly created Parcel Directorate in the Department of Posts here, Minister of State for Communications (Independent Charge) and Minister of State for Railways ShriManoj Sinha said, “This is another significant step in the journey of transformation that DoP has embarked upon. I expect this Directorate to act as a catalyst for growing our business, and providing efficient and cost-effective service to our customers.”The global decline in letter mail, and India being no exception to this trend, has been offset by an increase in packets and parcels. This is primarily on account of the e-commerce boom in India, with e-tailers requiring integrated collection, aggregation, sorting, transmission and delivery systems. The parcel market (logistics and distribution but excluding fulfilment and merchandise value) in the country is growing at a rate of 15% per annum and is expected to reach Rs. 60,000 Crore by 2026 from the existing Rs. 18,000 Crore.
India Post has undertaken the Parcel Network Optimization Project during November, 2016 to revamp the parcel operations.Steps are being taken to address parcel- specific requirements, including network rationalization, strengthening processing hubs and delivery centres, ensuring security, etc. Additionally, in order to ensure the timely and secure transmission of parcels, the Department has operationalized road transport routes.It has now been decided that a separate Directorate for parcels and E-commerce will be setup within the Department, which shall be headquartered in New Delhi. The Directorate will be along the lines of the PLI Directorate and the Business Development Directorate, which were set up earlier to bring focused attention into the PLI business and other business development activities of the Department.The traditional mail business and marketing of the Department will continue to be handled by the existing divisions.