Postal service to shift towards AI-based services

Dhaka: The Bangladesh Postal Department is moving towards transforming its services through artificial intelligence (AI), automation and digital address management as it seeks to meet growing public demand and improve service efficiency.

Director General of the Postal Department Kazi Asadul Islam disclosed the initiatives at a press briefing at Dak Bhaban in Agargaon, Dhaka, marking World Post Day.

He said the department has undertaken projects involving AI, automation and a digital address management database as part of its efforts to modernise the country’s postal services.

Public confidence in postal services has also increased following the successful delivery of postal ballots to voters at home and abroad during the last general election, he said.

“Since then, people are increasingly relying on the service to send parcels,” the director general said.

According to him, more than 1.5 million postal ballots were successfully delivered to voters in Bangladesh and abroad under the supervision of the Election Commission.

The postal department is also expanding its parcel delivery services in response to rising demand. It is providing doorstep pickup facilities and extending night-time services until midnight through the franchise model.

The department handled around five crore postal articles in the last fiscal year, while the volume of foreign mail and parcels rose by 25.84 percent to 316 tonnes in the first three months of the current fiscal year, compared with 243 tonnes during the same period a year earlier.

The postal network currently comprises 9,848 post offices and around 18,000 counters across the country, Asadul Islam said.

The department is also introducing specialised delivery services for perishable products. Raw hilsa from Chandpur is being transported in temperature-controlled thermal or chiller boxes, while cooked food from Dinajpur is delivered using special packaging, with shipments reaching destinations within 16 to 18 hours.

The director general said the department is also taking steps to introduce cash-on-delivery (COD) services for e-commerce, which could further expand the role of the postal network in the country's growing online commerce sector.

The postal department has already delivered 5.6 million passports to people's homes over the last two fiscal years, distributed seven lakh mouza maps and land khatians, collected 1.5 million telephone bills and delivered more than one million driving licences, he said.

It has also distributed more than seven crore smart National Identity (NID) cards through its nationwide network.

To strengthen its delivery capacity, the department has received 80 e-bikes and 43 delivery vans from the Universal Postal Union (UPU). Besides, 33 district post offices and 100 upazila post offices have been renovated or reconstructed with government funding.

Bangladesh Postal Department has received several international recognitions, including the e-Asia Award, WITSA Digital Opportunity Award and ASOCIO Digital Government Award, as well as recognition from the UPU for poverty alleviation and quality control.

The department has also won the Gold Medal twice consecutively under the EMS Customer Service Quality Standard. Bangladesh ranked third among 189 countries in data ranking, achieving a performance score of 96.49 percent, according to the director general.

The Airport Sorting Office at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport received an award in the Level-A Gold category in 2025.

Additional Director General (Accounts and Establishment) Abu Taleb, Additional Director General (Postal Services) Zakir Hasan Noor and Postmaster General, Dhaka Mohammad Zohurul Alam also spoke at the briefing.