The East India Company started establishing post offices in India.
The East India company opened its first post office in 1727. In 1774 Calcutta GPO was established. The site where the GPO is now located was actually the site of the first Fort William. An alley beside the post office was the site of the guardhouse that housed the infamous 1756 Black Hole of Calcutta (1756). The General Post Office was designed in 1864 by Walter B. Grenville (1819-1874), who acted as consulting architect to the government of India from 1863 to 1868. |
| Kolkata GPO |
In 1786 Madras GPO was established. is located on Rajaji Salai at Parry's Corner, Chennai. It functions in a building built in 1884. It is located opposite to the Chennai Beach suburban railway station. Chennai GPO covers an area of about 23.33 km2 (9.01 sq mi) and serves a population of around 220,000. It has no sub or branch offices.
IN 1794 Bombay GPO was established. The general post office is modelled on the Gol Gumbaz in Bijapur, Karnataka. It was designed by British architect John Begg, a consultant architect to the British government. Begg designed the structure in 1902, and construction began on 1 September 1904. It was completed on 13 March 1913 at a cost of ₨ 1,809,000. Black basalt, with a dressing of yellow Kurla stone and white stones from Dhrangdra are the predominant materials used. The building has an area of 120,000 square feet (11,000 m²) and replaced the current Central Telegraph Office at Flora Fountain as the new GPO. The chief feature of the architecture of this building is an ethereal central hall which rises up to the great dome.
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| Bombay GPO |
In the absence of Departmental Postmasters, the Post Offices were manned by the respective District Collectors or military officers as ex – officio Postmasters.
Bangalore G.P.O was established in about 1800. The first reference to the refused and returned letters with insufficient address was reflected in a Postal Notice issued by the Postmaster General, Calcutta G.P.O on 17th April 1816.
Lord Dalhousie appointed a Post office commission in 1850. Finally, the approved recommendations of Commission were framed as Post office Act XVII, 1854.
Lord Dalhousie recognized the Indian Post Offices as separate organization of national importance. It was placed, for the first time, under the unitary control of a Director General, Henry Phillip Archibald Buchanan Riddell, on 1st October 1854 with 700 Post offices (Post offices -645 & Receiving houses – 55). The Head Quarters was at Bengal, responsible to Home Department of the Government of India.
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