General Post Office, Chennai

In 1712, Governor Harrison (1711–1717) first started a Company Postal Service in Madras to carry mail to Bengal by dak runner. By 1736, a postal system of sorts was in place with a somewhat greater vision. In 1774, a system of charging postage on private letters began. Accepting this suggestion, the first Madras Post Office with fixed postal charges—the Madras GPO—was established by Governor Sir Archibald Campbell (1786–1790), who also established the Male and Female Orphan Asylums (that developed as St. George's School), and the postal service was thus made a government facility. Chennai General Post Office was initially opened in Fort St. George Square, just outside the Sea Gate, on 1 June 1786. The first Postmaster-General was Sir Archibald's secretary, A. M. Campbell. Robert Mitford was appointed the Deputy Postmaster-General. The GPO was served by one writer (clerk), five sorters, a head peon and ten postmen. Later, the company overruled Campbell's appointment and, eventually, Oliver Colt was appointed the first Postmaster-General of Madras. The Postmaster-General shifted on 1 March 1884 from the place he was occupying in the Mercantile Bank building further down the road, and the Broadway staff shifted on 26 April, the same year. The new building had cost 680,000 against an estimated 692,000, a considerable part of it contributed by the Madras Chamber of Commerce. The Presidency Postmaster was given residential accommodation on the second floor. By the early 1990s, the post office was filled to capacity and the search for a new building started. However, the idea was abandoned due to opposition from the Madras Chamber of Commerce, and the post office continued to function from the old building. ==The building==

The Chennai GPO building can be described as a red-painted Victorian County-Colonial or Victorian Gothic-Colonial overlay on Indo-Saracenic design. It is a three-storied building, 352 ft long and 162 ft wide, with 125-ft tall twin towers. The twin towers, when built, sported the Kerala roof-influenced "caps" atop as favoured by Chisholm, influenced by his building assignments in Travancore. However, a storm in the mid-20th century removed these crowns. Besides a high-ceilinged central hall, the ground floor provided space for stores, kitchen, servants, and so on. The first floor was used for offices and the second floor served as accommodation for officers. The building also had a unique exhaust facility meant to absorb the stink from the open drainage. ==Functioning==

The Chennai GPO is the primary post office of South India and has the Postal Index Number (PIN) 600 001. The GPO handles most of the city's inbound and outbound mail and parcels. Chennai GPO operates from 8:00 am to 8:30 pm from Monday to Saturday. On Sundays, the GPO functions from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. Facilities available are speed post, registered post, parcel, insurance, e-billing, and e-posting. Chennai GPO has a 24-hour telegraph office. Chennai GPO is one of the five Philatelic Bureaus in the country (others being Mumbai GPO, Kolkata GPO, Parliament Street, and New Delhi GPO) that are authorised to sell the United Nations stamps. ==Incidents==

On 23 October 2000, a fire gutted the building after which a major restoration was undertaken by the government. About 15,000 sq ft of the total 67,000 sq ft of built-up area was extensively damaged due to the fire, which included areas with the public counters, the main hall and the delivery hall, the savings bank halls and the foreign post department. The restoration cost 36 million and was completed in 2005. On 26 November 2005, the first two floors were opened after renovation. In 2011, a portion of the roof on the second floor of the GPO building collapsed due to monsoon rain. One of the domes atop the building, which was in a dilapidated condition due to heavy rains in the past, collapsed. However, nobody was reportedly injured. On 8 May 2019, a portion of tiles on the second floor of the post office building collapsed and fell inside the unused portion of the building. No one was injured in the incident.{{cite news ==Major Initiatives==

Chennai GPO launched a financial inclusion drive to provide post office Saving account to the poor of the poorest at cost of 50 linked with mobile and aadhaar. The account was also secured under PMSBY. A drive was launched by Chennai GPO to popularize postal service's among masses. Post office Saving Accounts were provided to the unbanked marginalized people of Chennai. Special drive for Fisherman known as "Sagar " was launched by Chennai GPO under the leadership of Alok Ojha to provide Insurance cover to Fisherman. A special help desk has been created in Chennai GPO for supporting the transgender community. An aadhaar enrollment centre has also been started in Chennai GPO to help transgender people and other marginalized sections of society. ==Restoration==

In 2018, the Department of Posts began the process of restoring the heritage structure. As the first step, an amount of 1.5 million has been sanctioned for detailed project report. ==See also==