Technology / Mobile phone
India ends 162-year-old telegram service
15 Jul 2013 at 05:29hrs | Views
Indians wait to send telegrams on the last day of the 163-year-old service at a telegraph office in New Delhi, India, July 14, 2013. At the stroke of 9 p.m. (local time) last Sunday, India ended its 163-year-old telegram service in the country. (Xinhua/Partha Sarkar)
Thousands of Indians have crammed into telegram offices to send souvenir messages, in a last-minute rush before the service was shut down after 162 years.
Sunday night at 10pm was the last point at which messages were accepted by the world's last major commercial telegram operation.
It marked the end of a service that provided millions of Indians with a fast and reliable mode of communication.
Known popularly as the "Taar" or wire, it closed because of mounting financial losses.
It had become redundant in an age of email, reliable landlines and ubiquitous mobile phones.
Hundreds of people thronged the 75 telegraph offices remaining in the country to send their last telegrams to friends or family as a keepsake.
The Central Telegraph Office in New Delhi said it geared up to tackle the expected rush.
Shameem Akhtar, a top official in the state-run telecommunications company, said it had increased staff at all telegram offices over the weekend.
Leave for the 1,000 staff was cancelled in a bid to handle the volume of messages.
The telegrams cost a minimum of 29 rupees (£0.32) and were hand-delivered by messenger workers on bicycles.
Joggers, housewives and students were among those sending messages to loved ones on Sunday before the service was cut.
Many were seen making calls on their mobile phones to get the postal addresses of their friends so they could send the last dispatch.
"I have never seen such a rush before. They are some people who are sending 20 telegrams in one go," Ranjana Das who is in charge of transmitting the telegrams, said.
"The service would not have been killed had there been this kind of rush through the year," worker Vinod Rai added.
In the days before mobile phones and the internet, the telegram network was the main form of long-distance communication.
At its peak in 1985 the state-run utility sent 600,000 telegrams a day across India but the figure has dwindled to 5,000 at present, Mr Akhtar said.
Most of these are believed to be sent from government departments.
One five-word telegram sent from the telegram centre in Nerw Delhi summed up the change.
It read: "The End of an Era."
Sunday night at 10pm was the last point at which messages were accepted by the world's last major commercial telegram operation.
It marked the end of a service that provided millions of Indians with a fast and reliable mode of communication.
Known popularly as the "Taar" or wire, it closed because of mounting financial losses.
It had become redundant in an age of email, reliable landlines and ubiquitous mobile phones.
Hundreds of people thronged the 75 telegraph offices remaining in the country to send their last telegrams to friends or family as a keepsake.
The Central Telegraph Office in New Delhi said it geared up to tackle the expected rush.
Shameem Akhtar, a top official in the state-run telecommunications company, said it had increased staff at all telegram offices over the weekend.
Leave for the 1,000 staff was cancelled in a bid to handle the volume of messages.
The telegrams cost a minimum of 29 rupees (£0.32) and were hand-delivered by messenger workers on bicycles.
Joggers, housewives and students were among those sending messages to loved ones on Sunday before the service was cut.
Many were seen making calls on their mobile phones to get the postal addresses of their friends so they could send the last dispatch.
"I have never seen such a rush before. They are some people who are sending 20 telegrams in one go," Ranjana Das who is in charge of transmitting the telegrams, said.
"The service would not have been killed had there been this kind of rush through the year," worker Vinod Rai added.
In the days before mobile phones and the internet, the telegram network was the main form of long-distance communication.
At its peak in 1985 the state-run utility sent 600,000 telegrams a day across India but the figure has dwindled to 5,000 at present, Mr Akhtar said.
Most of these are believed to be sent from government departments.
One five-word telegram sent from the telegram centre in Nerw Delhi summed up the change.
It read: "The End of an Era."
Source - SkyNews
