Nearly 150 years ago, the Podanur
Railway Junction was a gateway for the British who wanted to go to places near
Coimbatore. Soon, a building came up near the junction, which served as a guest
house, and had a stable for the horses of the soldiers.
Though the exact details are not
available, this building later had a mail office and after that it became a
post office. Apart from the railway junction, Podanur had a British settlement.
Before and after independence, the
post office handled huge volume of mails between the British settlements in the
country and also foreign mail. Some of the old documents, stamping devices and
a telegraph device with a golden handle that were at the post office have all
gone to postal museums, say officials in the department.
The oldest post office in Coimbatore is the
Podanur post office, which is functioning since 1886. It has been renovated two
or three times after that. The department will study if it could bring out a
special cover on it.
L. Suresh Babu, Post Master,
Podanur, says the basic structure of the 4,000 sq.ft building (located on a
half acre plot) has not been altered and only the interiors were renovated. The
post office was an exchange point (serving parts of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and
areas now in Erode and Tirupur districts, apart from Coimbatore) and had mail
runners too, who used to carry mails to other post offices.
Even now, this post office has the
largest jurisdiction (nearly seven km radius). The second post office that came
up in the city was on Lawley Road.
Source : http://www.thehindu.com/