One of the fastest modes of communication of yesteryear is dying a slow death. The telegraph — or telegram, as it is known in this part of the world — is being consigned to history.

With cellphone and landline networks reaching remote parts of the country and a vast section of the population hooked on email, telegraphing information has become archaic.

The fact is borne out by figures released by Central Telegraph Office (CTO), on Red Cross Road. “The CTO would send more than 3,500 telegrams daily 20 years ago. Today, it sends only 10,” said S.K. Saha, the sub-divisional engineer (traffic and general).

The telegram offices in the city are closing down. Of the 25 offices, three — near Poddar Court, on Canning Street and off RG Kar Medical College and Hospital — have shut down and the rest, too, are on the verge of closure.

“Ours is a dead department now,” sighed Saha. The sprawling and once-bustling hub of instant communication wears a forlorn look. As if conceding defeat to the march of new-age technology, the office has allowed a cyber café to come up on its premises.

The telegraph has been in use for more than 150 years. In this system, information is transmitted through a wire through a series of electrical pulses, in the form of Morse code. On May 24, 1844, Samuel FB Morse — the inventor of the system — dispatched the first telegraphic message from Washington DC to Baltimore.

The popularity of the telegraph gradually declined with the snail mail becoming faster. By the late nineties, it lost the ground to the Internet and cellphones.

Following the drastic fall in demand, the telegram section has not been recruiting people since the mid-eighties. But even today, there are at least 400 people working in the department.

Several employees, once busy round the clock typing the Morse code, have been transferred to the billing, accounts and other departments. “They is no way we can revive the telegram in this age of email and SMS service,” sighed Saha.