India Post RFID tracking works at the level of the closed mail bag, not the individual letter. In the design the Department of Posts (DoP) has published, a passive tag encoded when each dispatch bag is closed is read by UHF readers at mail-hub gates as the bag goes OUT of one office and IN at the next, and a central server turns those reads into transit times. DoP began a pilot in May 2022, had about 42 mail hubs equipped by March 2025, and that month tendered the system for about 565 sites. This explainer draws entirely on the public record: the tender, an RFID presentation hosted by the Asian-Pacific Postal Union (APPU), UPU standards and a press report.
What India Post tracks with RFID, and why bags rather than letters
The unit is the dispatch bag, which the Universal Postal Union (UPU) calls a receptacle: a container for items travelling together in a despatch (UPU catalogue of standards). One gate read accounts for a whole closed bag without opening it. Clause 3.6 of the tender notes that inward and outward bag entries are still made manually. Combining the presentation on RFID in India Post (UPU Regional Office, New Delhi) hosted by the APPU with the tender, a bag’s journey runs:
- Closing. An RFID writer at the post office or sorting hub encodes the bag’s tag. The tender links it to the bag label, consignment number, weight and sender and recipient details.
- OUT read. The bag passes the OUT point of a hub or mail office; the read goes to the central server.
- IN read. The next office’s IN point reports it the same way.
- Analysis. A central portal works out transit time; the tender adds a dashboard of unique scans and journey-completion time.
- Reuse. When the bag is opened at journey’s end, the tender wants the tag re-encoded.
The deck’s next step is integration with CSI, where India Post’s operational work is done, and its barcode-based scan, track and trace under IT 2.0, plus UPU S9 and S10.
From a 2022 pilot to about 42 mail hubs
The APPU deck says the project was implemented in India Post mail offices from May 2022, starting with a pilot between New Delhi, Guwahati and Itanagar. Its “current statistics” slide lists 37 sites, 40 active readers, 120 active antennas and 250k scans. The deck is undated (the PDF was last modified in August 2024), so those figures are a snapshot.
The tender (clause 3.1) puts the first phase at about 42 mail hubs, with readers and antennas at each hub’s gate. Postal Circles bought that hardware locally, and in March 2025 it ran on temporary central software not integrated with DoP’s IPVS/DPMS system. DoP then decided to cover all its mail hubs.
Sources disagree on how the tag is carried. The APPU deck places it on the existing bag label. A 2022 Tribune report from Ambala described tags on single-use plastic seals closing the bags. The 2025 tender asks for reusable tags re-encoded after each journey. We found no DoP statement of which method it uses today.
What the March 2025 national tender asks for
NIT No. DA-19/12/2024-DA-DOP, dated 25 March 2025, covers a “Receptacle/ Article based tracking system”. Bids were due online, via eprocure.gov.in, on 19 April 2025. The original link is dead; the 112-page file survives as a Wayback Machine capture of the NIT. We found no award notice, corrigendum or retender on India Post’s tenders page, so this is the tender as issued and we do not know its outcome.
The scope:
- Gate readers and antennas at about 565 sites (clauses 3.1(b) and 3.3(a)). Annexure-1 lists them as Transit Mail Offices (TMO), NSH and ICH sites, Level-1 and Level-2 Parcel Hubs and eight Foreign Post Offices (“Office of Exchange”); its tables as published run to 547 rows.
- About 3,500 RFID writers at the Post Offices and Sorting Hubs that encode bags.
- Central software that works with different makes of RFID hardware, including the existing equipment, with an open SDK on all hardware.
- Migration and maintenance. The existing sites move to the new software, and all hardware is maintained for 36 months from go-live.
The software requirements specification is due 14 days after the start date, user acceptance testing 28 days later and go-live 120 days after that. Hardware goes in over four three-week tranches of 100 readers and 900 writers (800 in the fourth), then a final 165 readers.
Technical scoring (clause 4.2):
| Criterion | Marks |
|---|---|
| Similar projects in the postal or courier-express-parcel sector | up to 25 |
| Methodology, including 20 for an “RFID EPC to UPU S9 Standard and Vice-versa convertor (Excel Format)“ | 50 |
| Being the OEM or an authorised dealer | 10 |
| Valid ISO 9001:2015 certificate | 5 |
| Call centre and all-India site-visit capability | 10 |
What a bidder should note
- Qualification and L1. Bidders scoring 60% or more qualify, and the lowest-priced (L1) among them wins.
- Class-I and MSE preference. Clause 15.6 gives purchase preference to Class-I local suppliers (at least 50% local content, auditor-certified above Rs 10 crore). Preference for micro and small enterprises (MSE) is limited to bidders who manufacture what they offer.
- SLA and penalty. Critical issues need a one-hour response and six-hour resolution; past 12 hours the penalty is Rs 100 per 24 hours per site.
- Intellectual property rights (IPR). All IPR created during the project, including source code and hardware designs, vests exclusively in DoP.
The data layer: UPU S9, S10 and an EPC converter
In the UPU catalogue of standards, S9 (current version S9-9) defines a 29-character receptacle identifier, and S10 (current version S10-13) defines a 13-character item identifier that may also be used for domestic items; the published S10-12 text gives its structure as a two-letter service indicator, an eight-digit serial number, a check digit and a two-character country code.
The tender asks for a domestic encoding workflow “broadly based on the UPU S9/S10 standards” that covers both tag and bag label, and for S9/S10 encoding and decoding for international mail. It also requires UUID-style identifiers so no tag is duplicated, and a check that each tag is correctly encoded.
The tender does not publish how an S9 identifier maps into EPC memory; it scores the bidder’s converter instead. A buyer copying this design must decide it and write it down.
Reading Annexure-4 line by line: lessons for spec writers
Annexure-4 specifies the reader, antenna, cables, mounting and writer; each gap is a drafting lesson.
- No India band clause on the reader or antenna. Both give “Global UHF band (860-960 MHz)”. That is a tuning span, not a licence. Require equipment configured for India and type-approved model by model; our BIS and WPC compliance guide covers the wording.
- A superseded band on the writer. The writer gives India as “865-867 MHz (IND)”, the 2005 figure. India’s licence-exempt band is 865–868 MHz under G.S.R. 853(E) of 10 December 2021. A writer tuned to the narrower range still sits inside that allocation, and Rule 1(3) grandfathers equipment type-approved under the 2005 rules; the clause, not the hardware, needs updating.
- Two air interfaces on one line. The writer lists “ISO18000-6B” beside EPC Class 1 Gen2 (ISO18000-6C). ISO catalogues Type B as ISO/IEC 18000-62 and Type C, which is Gen2, as ISO/IEC 18000-63: different air interfaces. If the tags are Gen2, make Gen2 the mandatory protocol and list 6B, if at all, as optional.
- Antenna figures that disagree. The heading says 9 dBi; the table gives 8.3 dB gain and 8.8 dBi directivity, and VSWR as “<1 dB”, though VSWR is a ratio that cannot fall below 1:1.
- No radiated-power ceiling. The reader goes up to +33 dBm into an antenna of about 8–9 dBi. Table IV of G.S.R. 853(E) permits 2 W e.r.p. only in four channels (see India’s UHF RFID channel plan), so full output into that antenna can exceed it unless power is set per site. State the ceiling as e.r.p.
- Untestable ranges and a named chip. The reader’s “up to 20m” and the antenna’s “Up to 12 meters” come with no tag type, test geometry or pass criteria, and the reader line names a single reader-chip family.
- No tag specification at all. Nothing on chip, memory, form factor, attachment or durability, though the tag is the one item on every bag. Our guide to writing an RFID tender BOQ covers how to write one.
What state logistics bodies and integrators can reuse
Outside the postal network, this is the same pattern as RFID for logistics and warehousing.
| Element in the tender | How to adapt it |
|---|---|
| Encode the tag when the bag is closed | Keep it; add an encoding check and a reject path for a failed write |
| OUT and IN gate reads | Specify direction sensing or a trigger so an IN is never logged as an OUT; see stray reads at adjacent dock doors |
| Hardware-agnostic software, open SDK | Keep it; ask for the SDK and demo source at bid stage |
| Per-site SLA | Scale it to your site count and define downtime in writing |
| Rollout in tranches | Make the first tranche the acceptance pilot |
| Radio clause | Cite G.S.R. 853(E), require type approval per reader and antenna model, set an e.r.p. ceiling |
| Tag line (missing) | Add one: attachment, reusable tag or single-use RFID seal tags, memory, encoding, sample approval |
| S9/S10 data standard | Outside the UPU system, pick an EPC scheme and publish the mapping |
| Class-I local content | See the store’s guide to Class-I, purchase preference and the document pack |
A reusable tag serves repeat journeys; a single-use, self-locking seal destroyed on removal shows whether a bag was opened. Where a door has a sensor or barrier, a fixed reader such as the IHZ4 four-port fixed reader, which is BIS and WPC approved, has relay outputs and Wiegand for barriers and access panels; as in lesson 5, set its output per site so the antenna’s e.r.p. stays within 2 W. At narrow doorways, a walk-through portal with two-way In/Out sensing such as the HLR200 UHF gate reader fits the OUT/IN pattern.
Where Identium fits
This post describes India Post’s published design, not an Identium project. We manufacture passive UHF tags and RFID seal tags, and fixed and gate readers, in New Delhi; our closest government logistics reference is Indian Railways asset and infrastructure tracking.
The HLR200’s read range of up to 4 m across the portal is typical and environment-dependent. Identium is a BIS and WPC approved RFID manufacturer, and passive bag tags and seals need no WPC approval or BIS registration.
Custom tag orders typically turn around in 5–10 days, and hardware is quoted against specification: send us your bag type, site list and read points.