Mangaluru :. Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel inaugurated the new building of the RMS Post Office located next to the Railway Reservation Counter at the Mangaluru Central Railway Station here on Friday, July 10.

It is at this Post Office that all the unregistered and registered mails of the region are sorted. On an average this post office handles per day around 90,000 unregistered mail, 8,000 registered letters, 800 parcels, besides sorting bulk mail sent from in about 1,000 bags from Manipal.

This post office, which is one of the 24 RMS Post Offices in the State, has been functioning since 1916. It moved to a rented building of the Indian Railways in 1963. It was in the year 1986 that the first and second floor was constructed. “Because of various reasons the Railways failed to maintain this building. The 100-odd employees at this RMS did not even have a toilet. We had to work despite a leaking roof,” said Senior Superintendent of Posts Sanna Nayak.

Assistant Superintendent of Posts Ravindra Naika said the visit of Mr. Kateel to the Mangaluru Central station in July last year for the Swachch Bharat programme proved to be a blessing. Mr. Kateel was brought to the RMS Post Office and taken around to show the state of the building. Following this visit, Mr. Kateel said he would hold meeting with the Railways and Postal Department officials and sort out differences.

The Department of Posts took up the work of renovation at a cost of Rs. 50 lakh. An additional amount of Rs. 10 lakh was also sanctioned for the work. Following renovation, the RMS post office sorts the bulk mail on the ground floor. On the first floor, separate sections have been created for sorting unregistered and registered mail. This Post Office also receives Speed Post articles thoroughout the day. It also receives registered post between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.