Where are the letterboxes disappearing?

And it's the same story for Laxman Mane, Asaram Deshmukh and Pavan Kamat who stays at Mangalwar Peth, Sahakar Nagar and Parvati Darshan area respectively.

An old Postal letterbox was in a wobbly state near Govind Halwai Chowk for three days. "The cement base of the box was broken and some letters were scattered near the footpath," said Vinod Jain, a local resident, who promptly informed to the City Post Office. "Fortunately, postal department took cognisance of my complaint and repaired it," he added.


Fast vanishing: The number of people using postal services has reduced
and so are the letter boxes. Pic/Vivek Sabnis

LV Dharmadhikari, Senior Post Master, City Post Office, West Zone, said, "We have hardly a case of letter box missing or being stolen. They are regularly maintained by the class IV staff", he said. However, he agreed that the number of Postal letterboxes were reducing in big way.

"People now use e-mail, and other online mechanism to communicate with each other. This has reduced the number of people using postal services," he said. " Col KC Mishra, Postmaster General, Pune Region, said that Indian Post Office has already introduced speed post totally mechanised with the help of Speed Net software. Even our money order system has become electronically operated and there shall be a lesser use of papers in our postal services.

He was reluctant to speak about the Postal letter boxes which were 'outdated' according to him.u00a0At present, the old British style big six-feet high letterboxes are seen in the General Post Office at Cantonment only. But the other types including pillar, round, big pillar, TV type square size and hanging post boxes are seen in the city on road corners or in the vicinity of the post offices.

Still there
Some old spots where Letter Boxes are still in existence: Daruwala Pul, Guru Nanak Nagar, Kasture Chowk, Rastrabhavan Chowk, Sotya Mhasoba Chowk, Dr Kotnis Hospital Chowk, Nishat Talkij, Nana Peth Chowk, Sneha Nagar Chowk, Parvati Water Wroks, Poona Hospital and Gadital Chowk.

Did you know?
Earlier, the letterboxes were made with gunmetal but now tough iron is used. All the letterboxes are manufactured in Nashik and Kolhapur by the Postal Stores Department