Chennai: Want to travel to 58 locations across the state and fill a booklet with postage stamps and postmarks? For those who enjoy the little things and old-school charm, Philately Passports will be available from Monday.Following the buzz in Karnataka, the Tamil Nadu Postal Circle launched the ‘Philately Passport’, a pocket-sized booklet that invites travellers to explore the state’s heritage sites and tourist destinations, where they can collect a special postmark at every stop. The aim is to promote ‘philately’, the collection and study of postage stamps. Chief postmaster general B Radhika Chakravarthy unveiled the passport at the Chennai General Post Office (GPO) last Monday as part of Postal Week celebrations.The booklet, which has a dark blue cover featuring a gold outline of Tamil Nadu, costs ₹650. It will be on sale at post offices in Chennai, Puducherry, Trichy, Madurai and Coimbatore. The concept has generated considerable interest and demand in Karnataka, where 8,000 such passports were sold within a few hours on Oct 11.The passport covers 58 locations, each represented by a distinctive pictorial postmark. The impressions depict temples, forts, lighthouses, wildlife, institutions, notable personalities, and other landmarks that capture Tamil Nadu’s heritage, culture, and natural beauty. People can collect stamps and postmarks at destinations ranging from Pulicat and Mudumalai to Kanniyakumari.For stamp collectors, the passport offers a new way to pursue a familiar hobby. For travellers, it provides a souvenir that records their journeys through the stamps and postmarks they collect. “It is going to be my travel diary once I buy it,” said Ashuthosh K, a heritage enthusiast based in Chennai. “Apart from collecting the stamps and visiting the destinations, what interests me more is going to the post offices in all these areas. Many of them will be in different terrains and historic buildings,” he said.
