Visakhapatnam: The postal department catapulted itself into the world of smartphones and their smart usage on Tuesday as it launched its Android- based application to keep a track on the emptying of letter boxes.

The mobile app is a in-house product developed by the Centre for Excellence in Postal Technology of the AP’s postal department.

The application was launched at the Lawson’s Bay post office which covers about 14 post boxes by chief postmaster general, B.V. Sudhakar. This is the first time in country that a postal department wing of a state will be employing mobile app.

The application involves scanning of a bar code by an Android-based smartphone in which the mobile app developed by postal department will be installed. The bar code is pasted inside the letter box, behind the small lid which is opened to clear the the letters from the box.

Once the bar code is scanned, the smartphone automatically updates data such as location of post box, name of letter box peon and time. After this, the letter box peon, the person who is responsible for emptying letter boxes should update the number of letter emptied by him on the mobile app.

This system will be implemented in entire Vizag, which has about 500 post boxes by January 2015 end. All letter box attenders in Vizag, numbering about 25 will be given Android-based smartphones.