Send a parcel from Bangalore to Gorakhpur. We pick up free.
About 2,070 kilometres north into the Purvanchal plain — 5–6 working days on DTDC surface, 3–4 by air express, into the 273xxx pin series. Free pickup anywhere in Bengaluru at 5 kg and above, and on this lane we spend most of our time on the south and west edges of the city: Bommanahalli, Begur, Hulimavu, Kengeri and Nagarbhavi.
We come to where you work, the parcel goes north, someone at home signs for it.
Pickup, Bengaluru.
You do not have to come anywhere. Tell us the site, the room, the shop or the gate and the rider comes there — Bommanahalli, Begur, Hulimavu, Kengeri, Nagarbhavi and the site accommodation around them are regular ground for us. If writing the address in English is a nuisance, send it as a voice note on WhatsApp in Hindi or Bhojpuri and we will write the AWB for you. Carton, tape and the weighing scale come with the rider, and you see the weight before anything is sealed.
Booking and the receipt.
The parcel is booked into DTDC the same evening and you get the AWB number on WhatsApp straight away. Keep that message — it is your receipt, it is what you send to the family so they can check where the parcel is, and it is what we need if anything has to be traced later.
Line-haul north.
The long run up the country to the north Indian network and then east across Uttar Pradesh into the Gorakhpur belt. By road that stretch takes 5–6 working days. Express goes by air out of Kempegowda and completes in 3–4. Between December and January, fog across the northern plain can add a day to the road leg — that is normal on every lane going this way and worth allowing for when something is needed by a date.
Gorakhpur delivery.
Off the Gorakhpur beats across 273xxx — the city itself, the areas around the temple and the university side, and the market quarters. Village addresses in the district and in the neighbouring Deoria, Kushinagar, Maharajganj, Basti and Sant Kabir Nagar areas fall on longer rural runs and usually take an extra day. A phone number the receiver actually answers matters more here than anywhere else on our network.
POD on WhatsApp.
When it is handed over we send you the proof of delivery on WhatsApp — the signature or the stamped slip. You will normally know the parcel has landed before the family gets round to telling you.
Starting rates, Bangalore → Gorakhpur.
Billed on actual or volumetric weight, whichever is greater, plus the fuel surcharge on the day of booking. GST is charged separately. We tell you the number before the parcel leaves your hand, not after.
- Standard parcel (surface) from ₹120 / kg 5–6 working days. Min billable 5 kg.
- Express parcel (air) from ₹180 / kg 3–4 working days. Door delivery.
- Bulk consignment (35 kg+) from ₹120 / kg Min 35 kg. Surface routing.
Pickup is free anywhere in Bengaluru at 5 kg and above, site accommodation and shared rooms included. Volumetric weight is (L × W × H cm) ÷ 5000 — the reason a big light bag of clothes and blankets can cost more than its weight suggests. Two things save real money on this lane: pack tight so the box is small, and put everything into one parcel instead of three, because the minimum billable weight applies to each booking separately.
What working people in Bengaluru actually send home to Purvanchal.
Clothes and things for the children
The most common parcel on this lane by a distance. School shoes and uniforms, shirts and frocks bought at a Bengaluru market because they are cheaper or better here, a schoolbag before the session starts, shoes that were promised on a phone call months ago. Fold flat, press the air out, and use one box rather than two — a tightly packed carton is the difference between paying for six kilos and paying for twelve.
Winter clothing before the cold
Bengaluru never needs a blanket and Gorakhpur very much does. From late October we carry sweaters, jackets, shawls, thermals and quilt covers north every week. Send them in October or early November rather than in December — the network is at its busiest in the run-up to the winter festivals and the northern fog is at its worst in the weeks after, and a blanket that arrives in January has already done its job badly.
A phone, and how to send it properly
Phones bought here for a parent, a wife or a younger brother are constant on this route. Send it in its sealed retail box with the invoice inside, tell us at booking that it is a phone, and declare the value so it is covered — a phone slipped unmentioned into a bag of clothes has no protection at all if something goes wrong. The battery inside the sealed handset is fine. A separate power bank is not, and that is covered below.
Original documents and family paperwork
Land papers, bank forms needing a signature, school and college certificates, marriage documents, ration and identity paperwork, a policy that has to reach an office in Gorakhpur. Always express, never surface, and always with a phone number on the AWB for the person receiving it. Photograph every page on your phone before you hand it over — we ask everybody to do it, and the one time it matters, it really matters.
Medicines in their original packing
Regular medicine for a parent, sent because it was prescribed by a doctor here or because the strip is not easy to find at home. It travels if it stays in its original strip or bottle with the batch and expiry printed on it, and it is far better as express than as a five-to-six day surface run. Loose tablets in a pouch or a repacked bottle will be refused, so leave the packing alone.
Boxes coming back at the end of a job
When a contract finishes or a family goes back for good, the room has to be emptied — bedding, a stove, utensils, a fan, tools, a trunk. Above 35 kg it goes on the bulk band, still from ₹120/kg on surface, and it is far cheaper and much less painful than dragging the same load onto a train. Tell us the total weight roughly and we will bring enough cartons and strapping to the door.
A short, real list.
These are refused by DTDC and by every courier network in the country. The second block is what actually gets attempted on this route, and none of it is written to catch anybody out — it is written so your parcel is not stopped at the counter:
Banned outright
- Cash and currency notes of any amount
- Gold, silver and jewellery
- Kerosene, oil, spirit and any flammable liquid
- Matches, lighters and gas refills
- Loose medicines without original packaging
- Fireworks and crackers
Common Bengaluru → Gorakhpur misjudgements
- Cash sent inside a parcel — the most attempted thing on this lane and the one we refuse most often, because the intention behind it is always good. Money hidden in a fold of clothes is not insured, not tracked and not recoverable, and no courier in India will carry it. Send money through a bank, UPI or a money-transfer counter and send the goods separately. It costs less and it actually arrives.
- Gold ornaments for a wedding at home — the same answer and the same reason. Jewellery is uninsurable on a courier network. If it has to travel, it travels with a person, not in a box.
- A power bank or a spare battery tucked in with a phone — the sealed handset ships, the loose power bank does not, and it is the single commonest cause of a parcel being opened and held at booking. Take it out and the rest of the box goes through untouched.
- Achaar, ghee and homemade food in a tin — sent with love and refused all the same. Oil and ghee are liquids, tins do not survive a five-to-six day road journey, and a leak ruins every other item in the box, including the clothes. Dry sealed snacks and packaged food are fine.
- Original documents sent on surface to save money — not banned, but a mistake. Five to six days on the road with a land paper or a certificate that cannot be reissued is a bad trade for the couple of hundred rupees saved. Send documents express and keep photographs of every page.
AWB on WhatsApp. Track on dtdc.in. POD when it lands.
The AWB number reaches you on WhatsApp as soon as the parcel is booked, and anyone with that number can check it at dtdc.in — forward it to the family so they can look themselves instead of calling you at work. The Gorakhpur side is where addresses decide everything. A city address in 273xxx delivers straightforwardly. A village address does not work from a street name, so give us the village, the post office, the block, the police station, the district and the six-digit pin, plus a nearby landmark — a school, a temple, a well-known shop. Give two mobile numbers if you can, because the person the parcel is for may be out in the fields when the rider calls, and a phone that is not answered is the main reason a parcel goes back to the branch instead of into a hand. One seasonal warning: when the Rapti runs high in the monsoon months, low-lying rural routes across this belt can be cut off for days at a time. The parcel is safe at the branch, but it waits for the road.
Specific to Bangalore → Gorakhpur.
Can I send money home in the parcel along with the clothes?
No — and please do not try it, even folded inside something. Currency notes are prohibited on every courier network in India, including DTDC. A parcel is not a secure cash channel: it is not insured for money, a claim cannot be made for it, and if the packet is opened at any point in a two-thousand-kilometre journey there is no way to prove what was inside. Send the money the normal way — a bank transfer, UPI, or a money-transfer counter — and send the goods as a parcel. It is cheaper than you think and the money reaches the same day instead of in five. Gold and silver ornaments are the same answer: they cannot be carried and cannot be covered. If we find cash or jewellery at booking we will hand it back to you rather than take the parcel, and that is us protecting you, not being difficult.
The address is a village near Gorakhpur, not the city. Will it be delivered?
Yes, the rural belt around Gorakhpur is served, including the neighbouring Deoria, Kushinagar, Maharajganj, Basti and Sant Kabir Nagar districts, but plan for an extra working day beyond the city transit and give us a proper address. What a rural beat needs is: the village name, the post office, the block, the police station, the district and the six-digit pin — and then a landmark anyone locally would know, because there are no street names to work from. Add two mobile numbers if you have them. In the monsoon months, water across the low-lying routes in this belt can hold a rural delivery for days; the parcel sits safely at the local branch until the road is passable, and the tracking will show it waiting rather than lost. If the family can collect from the branch in town, tell us at booking and we can note that instead.
I work at a site and cannot leave. Can you collect from there, and can I pay in cash?
Yes to both, and this is most of what we do on this lane. Tell us where you are — the site, the labour quarters, the shop, the gate, wherever is practical — and the rider comes to you rather than the other way round. Bommanahalli, Begur, Hulimavu, Kengeri, Nagarbhavi and the accommodation around the construction sites there are routine collections for us. Pickup is free at 5 kg and above. Our desk is open 24×7, so if you only finish at ten at night, that is a perfectly normal time to book a collection and no one will make a fuss about it. Cash at the door is accepted, and so is UPI if you prefer a record. If writing out the destination address is difficult, send it as a WhatsApp voice note in Hindi and we will write the AWB and read it back to you before the parcel is sealed.
Tell us the rough weight. We’ll come back in minutes.
A real person at your Bengaluru door, in about an hour.
WhatsApp us where you are and roughly what the parcel weighs, or just call — Hindi is fine and a voice note is fine. The Bengaluru desk is open 24×7, so a pickup late at night or before the shift starts is completely normal on this route.