TIRUPUR: The All India RMS-MMS Employees Union, state circle, has temporarily withdrawn its plan to hold a hunger strike seeking to halt the proposed closure of the operational section at Tirupur (RMS) Railway Mail Service.Union president V Dhanabalan said the decision followed an assurance from the chief postmaster general in Chennai. He reiterated that Tirupur’s role as India’s garment export hub makes the facility significant.Employees at the Railway Mail Service (RMS) unit in Tirupur said the centre currently books around 1,500 parcels and processes more than 2,500 parcels daily, including transit handling and sorting operations. They said the facility has the capacity to scale up to nearly 5,000 parcel bookings in the near future, citing Tirupur’s rapid industrial growth and rising logistics needs.According to the employees, parcel bookings alone generated about Rs 1.70 crore in revenue from January to May. The unit also handles nearly 8,000 Speed Post articles and more than 26,000 ordinary mail articles. It plays a key role in timely delivery across the network.They pointed to the 24×7 booking model introduced by the Union minister for communications, under which booking services operate at Tirupur head post office from 8am to 8pm and at the Tirupur RMS booking counter from 8pm to 8am. According to them, the night booking counter generates close to Rs 3 lakh in monthly revenue.More than 50 regular employees and over 25 temporary workers are currently employed at Tirupur RMS. The staff said any proposal to merge Tirupur RMS with Coimbatore RMS would severely impact employees and their families.CPI MP K Subbaryan has urged Union communications minister Jyotiraditya M Scindia to retain the Railway Mail Service (RMS) unit at Tirupur as an independent facility and drop any proposal to merge it with Coimbatore RMS. In a letter, Subbaryan said the Tirupur RMS, started in 1963, with factory night shifts and time-bound exports, firms frequently send and receive parcels of accessories, samples and inputs, including consignments for buyer approvals.Considering Tirupur’s importance, it generates Rs 50,000 crores in export revenue and Rs 50,000 crores in domestic textile production. Tirupur and surrounding areas have nearly 10,000 to 15,000 garments and allied industrial units, with a population exceeding 10 lakh people. Any delay in postal and parcel services will adversely affect exporters, industrial establishments, business communities and the public at large.EOM
