The central telegraph office in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, June 17: The news came as a shock. Stop.

Sixty-five-year-old retired government servant Bipin Bihari Mohapatra could not believe it. Stop. The 160-year-old telegram service would stop from July 15. Stop.

Mohapatra recalled the days when he used to stand in serpentine queues at the central telegraph office (CTO) near PMG Square to send a telegram.

“These days, mobile connectivity has left every other mode of communication behind. But we lived in the era when telegram was one of the most important tools to stay connected with dear ones. I used to send telegrams to my family members,” said Mohapatra.

Not only residents such as him, but many employees working in the telegraph office are also feeling nostalgic. Though the office used to send and receive more than 2,000 telegrams on daily basis in the 1960s, arrival of cell phone and Internet has limited the number to no more than 1,000 every month.

Sources in telegraph office said that the average booking of telegrams in the office in the last five moths was 425 every month. Similarly the average outgoing telegrams from the office was 650 every month.

The demand of the telegram service in the city can be established from the fact that there was another telegraph office operating at Saheed Nagar to meet the rising demands, but the office was closed in 2007 because of staff shortage. Similarly, the main telegraph office used to have 150 staff two decades ago, whereas the current staff strength has declined to 19 with five of them being engaged exclusively for telegram service.

The current employees also recalled the days when their job was considered prestigious. “Once I had been to Calcutta for applying a visa and when I told the officials that I am doing a job in the telegraph office, they lent me full co-operation,” said senior telegraph master Pranatirani Bhattacharjee, who worked in the office for more than 30 years.

The retired employees also recalled the days when the service was used by government departments. “Various state government departments used to book telegrams on credit and pay the bill on monthly basis later,” said retired chief telegraph master R.K. Sahu. He also said that most of the telegrams used to be sent to various districts of western Odisha.