₹25 per month rent? Harsh Goenka points to heritage building in Munnar paying British-era tenancy to RPG Group

A ₹25 Monthly Tenancy: RPG Chairman Highlights a 114-Year-Old Post Office in Munnar

Theindiapostdaily.com – For more than a century, a modest structure in the hill station of Munnar has served as a post office, linking residents and visitors through letters and parcels long before digital communication took hold. The building’s landlord is Harrisons Malayalam, a Kochi-based agricultural enterprise that forms part of the RPG Group. What drew public attention to the arrangement was not the post office itself but the rent: a British-era tenancy of just ₹25 per month.

Harsh Goenka, chairman of the RPG Group, drew attention to the matter by posting on X. His words carried a tone of quiet admiration for the institution’s endurance.

“This British-era post office in Munnar operates from 114 years in a building owned by Harrisons Malayalam at a rent of ₹25 a month! A charming reminder that while technology changes, some institutions quietly keep communities connected.”

Reactions Across Social Media

The post sparked a wave of commentary, ranging from nostalgia to criticism.

“Wow Harsh that’s a Nobel thing to do keeping rent same and keep the heritage which is priceless and nostalgic.”

“My family happen to take a tour of this Tea State way back in 2024 when stayed in Munnar for 3 days. I have seen this Post Office as well as the Medical Centre for workers.”

“Nothing charming about the ramshackle hut. It is an apology for a post office, should have got modernised long time ago with better structure, customer and staff facilities, parking etc.”

“I suggest to give this building free of cost, no rent. As it’s an opportunity for Harrison s Malayalam to connect communities.”

“It reminds me the pleasure of receiving an inland/ postcard handwritten letters from our near & dear ones.”

The Long Arc of India’s Postal Network

The roots of organized mail delivery in the subcontinent stretch back to 1766, when Warren Hastings, acting under the East India Company, established what was then called “Company Mail.” Nearly nine decades later, in 1854, Lord Dalhousie restructured the service under direct Crown authority and introduced uniform postage rates across the territory.

At the moment of Independence in 1947, the country operated 23,344 post offices. By 2025 that figure had swelled to 1,64,987, with roughly 90 percent located in rural regions. Today the network, branded India Post, functions nationwide under the Ministry of Communications and stands as the most geographically dispersed postal system anywhere on Earth.

Headquartered in New Delhi, India Post operates as a statutory body of the Indian public sector. Its current footprint comprises 164,999 offices — 149,385 serving rural communities and 15,614 serving urban populations — making it the largest postal network in the world by number of locations.