Needled by pin codes

Unlike most of us who have switched from snail mail, the government continues to patronise the services of India Post. But in one case at least, this practice has created a quaint problem - the kind that happens only in India. Nirman Bhavan has ended up with two pin codes. This is how it happened. Nirman Bhavan is located on the same road as the equally busy Udyog Bhavan and shared the same pin code: 110011. Since both Bhavans house key ministries, the post office struggled to keep up with the workload. So the postal department in its wisdom decided to create a new post office and, therefore, a new pin code for Nirman Bhavan: 110108. Not that this helped, because not all Nirman Bhavan ministries complied. So, for example, Health and Family Welfare and Urban Development continued to use the old pin code of 110011, whereas, the more recently set up ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA, formed in 2004) used the new 110108. Naturally, this duality caused chaos but appeals to the postal department were ignored. An exasperated HUPA ministry now sports the old pin code, 110011, on its official letterhead. Undaunted, India Post has come up with a unique solution: it continues to list both pin codes for Nirman Bhavan, 110108 as

well as 110011.