India’s Department of Post recently launched a full-fledged domestic freighter service here for the fi rst time by the re-branded Air India.

The freight service will operate to and from Kolkata and from the rest of the country to Guwahati, Imphal and Agartala as part of the postal department’s effort to improve its mail network and infrastructure in the Northeast states. The service employs a Boeing 737- 200, and will operate on the Kolkata- Guwahati-Imphal-Agartala-Kolkata route on a daily basis, except for Mondays.

The launch of the India Post freighter will facilitate the timely booking, transmission and delivery of mails as well as other products such as Express Parcel Post, Logistic Post etc, the statement said, and appealed to the state customers, particularly the business and trading community to take advantage of the new service.

Union Communications and IT minister A Raja said the service was an endeavour to bring the northeast region to the heart of India’s economy and to be in step with the rest of the country. With rapid economic growth in the country, he said, the hopes and aspirations of the N-E people also increased and the freighter service was to affect a longtime solution and meet these challenges.

Later talking to reporters, Raja said Indian Post would get three or four more aircraft to cover the rest of the country.