It was in the year 1916, amid the grandeur of the British Raj, that the General Post Office (GPO), a majestic symbol of imperial architecture and civic utility, rose from the soil of Nagpur and connected the world with Central India through postal services. It cost around Rs 5 lakh at the time to construct this complex spreaded in 11-acre land. The purpose was to serve as the nerve centre of postal communication across the Central India as Nagpur was the capital of the then Central Provinces and Berar state. Today, more than a century later, it continues to stand tall as a living institution and a historical monument.

 

‘The Hitavada’ explores this century-old edifice today on the World Postal Day which will be celebrated on Thursday. Within the vast GPO premises resides a microcosm of the entire postal universe. The complex houses the Railway Mail Services, Mail Motor Services, and the Nagpur GPO itself. It houses a delightfully preserved Philately Bureau, a haven for lovers of postage stamps. This land parcel, now under the Maharashtra Circle, once served as the headquarters of the Postmaster General of Central Circle during the British era, when Nagpur was the administrative heart of Central India. But the tides of time shifted in 1965, when the Central Circle was handed over to the Maharashtra Circle. An official said that the architecture of the GPO mirrors the elegance of its era. The building is primarily a load-bearing structure, constructed with brick walls, steel columns, beams and ribs encased in lime concrete, crowned by a pitched roof of country tiles and battens.

 

The exterior, by contrast, speaks a more ornamental language, with sweeping verandas, Tuscan columns, carved stone screens, and a Roman arch gracefully topped by a pavilion of twelve columns supporting a clock tower that still watches over the city’s skyline. Once the seat of the erstwhile Postmaster General of Central Provinces and Berar, the GPO is often regarded as the ‘mother institution’ of the region’s postal administration, said a senior official. The Philately Bureau, one of only seven in the Maharashtra Circle, decorates display racks with toolboxes, mugs, calendars, books, keychains, and the finest philatelic products. As Gajendra Jadhao, Superintendent of Post Offices at the Department of Posts, reflects, “The GPO is the heart of communication in this region. It has long served as the head office for postal services in the region.”