Daijiworld Media Network- Mangaluru

Mangaluru, Aug 10: Speed Post services across Karnataka, including Mangaluru, have been crippled for the past two days after a technical breakdown in the postal department’s new IT 2.0 software. The sudden glitch has left customers frustrated, particularly those depending on urgent deliveries.

For years, the department had relied on software developed by Infosys. However, when problems arose — especially on weekends — officials often had to wait for the company to fix them, causing delays. To address this, the department created its own in-house IT 2.0 platform, which was piloted in the Karnataka postal circle in late June.

The rollout on June 21 had initially caused a four-day disruption during installation, but services soon returned to normal. That stability was short-lived.

Since Friday, the system has been unable to process Speed Post bookings as the digital forms and address stickers required for parcels fail to appear on post office terminals. Without a backup manual process, all Speed Post operations have come to a standstill.

Customers who depend on the service are being hit hard.

“I have to send medicine parcels regularly. For the last two days, the website issue has stopped Speed Post services. I have no choice but to use expensive private couriers,” said Dr Arun Prasad of Mudipu.

Postal authorities have assured the public that the issue will be resolved soon.

“The new software is facing some technical challenges. We understand the inconvenience to customers. We expect to fix the problem by Monday,” a senior official from the Mangaluru postal department.

Meanwhile, private courier agencies have seen a sudden spike in bookings as frustrated customers turn to them for urgent deliveries.