Postal services hit in Chennai as APT 2.0 glitches cause booking delays

As the Department of Posts rolled out APT (Advanced Postal Technology) 2.0 across its branches in the city earlier this week, several post offices faced glitches due to a server breakdown, leading to delays in booking of articles.

Over the past two days, several residents who attempted to book Speed and Registered Posts, and money orders failed to complete the booking, even after a long wait at the counters.

While at some post offices in Ambattur, Avadi, and Pattabiram, bookings took longer than usual due to sluggish network, counters were closed at several others, including in Kilpauk, Anna Nagar, and Ayanavaram, much to the inconvenience of the postal customers.

According to the department, the APT has been designed as a single-window system to offer an enhanced user experience, and faster service delivery. However, the services have hit a roadblock due to network issues.

In the past one year, the Tamil Nadu postal circle has handled nearly 11.84 crore Speed and Registered Posts in the State.

“I visited two post offices in my area to book speed post on Wednesday. But the counter operations were suspended. The General Post Office, too, was crowded. I finally had to send a package to Madhya Pradesh via Speed Post by private courier for double the charges,” a Kilpauk resident said.

Admitting that the post offices in many areas faced issues, officials said the APT 2.0 digital platform was expanded to all post offices in Tamil Nadu after seamless operation during pilot rollout in post offices like in Vellore.

The General Post Office on Rajaji Salai — which handles a high volume of Speed and Registered Post consignments — has had difficulties in booking 20,000-25,000 articles over the past two days. The post office has also put up notices announcing the network issue due to new software migration.

Officials said the technical issues had been escalated to the Centre for Excellence in Postal Technology, and the operations were expected to normalise in two days. However, post office banking operations were carried out as it was offered through Finacle digital banking platform.