Send a parcel from Bangalore to Lucknow. We pick up free.
Roughly 1,950 kilometres to the Uttar Pradesh capital — the long NH44 climb as far as Jhansi, then east across the Doab through Kanpur. DTDC surface takes 4–5 working days, air express 2–3. Pickup is free anywhere in Bengaluru at 5 kg and above, arranged through an HSR Layout desk that picks up the phone at any hour.
Collection across Bengaluru, NH44 to Jhansi, then east through Kanpur into Lucknow.
Pickup, Bengaluru.
A rider is usually at your door 60–90 minutes after you call. The north-east belt is the natural catchment for this lane — Frazer Town, Cooke Town, Kammanahalli, Hennur and the Banaswadi side, where a long-settled north Indian community lives and where most of our Lucknow bookings start. That side also happens to sit closest to the northbound exit out of the city, so a late-afternoon collection there still makes the night's movement. Tape, bubble wrap and a weighing scale come with the rider, and the box is closed in front of you.
Bengaluru sortation.
Booked into the DTDC Bengaluru facility the same evening and scanned before the night departure. Lucknow is not a route where a missed cut-off costs you an hour; it costs a working day at the far end, because the eastward leg beyond Jhansi runs on a daily rhythm rather than a rolling one.
NH44 to Jhansi.
The trunk leg — Hyderabad, Nagpur, Sagar, Jhansi — is the same corridor that carries everything we send into north India, and it is the reliable part of the journey. Express skips it entirely: the parcel lifts out of Kempegowda and is on the ground in UP the same day it leaves.
East through Kanpur into Lucknow.
From Jhansi the surface leg turns east across the Doab and runs via Kanpur, which is why Kanpur and Lucknow share a transit band despite the 80-odd kilometres between them. Last mile then spreads across the 226xxx series — Gomti Nagar, Aliganj, Indira Nagar, Alambagh, Hazratganj, Chinhat and the Sultanpur Road extension.
POD on WhatsApp.
The proof of delivery reaches you within the hour of the consignment being signed for — signature image or stamped slip, straight to the number you booked from.
Starting rates, Bangalore → Lucknow.
Billed on actual or volumetric weight, whichever comes out higher, plus the fuel surcharge applying on the day you book. GST is charged on top.
- Standard parcel (surface) from ₹120 / kg 4–5 working days. Min billable 5 kg.
- Express parcel (air) from ₹180 / kg 2–3 working days. Door delivery.
- Bulk consignment (35 kg+) from ₹120 / kg Min 35 kg. Surface routing.
Pickup is free anywhere in Bengaluru on this lane once the consignment is 5 kg or more. Volumetric weight is (L × W × H in cm) ÷ 5000. Two things move the number on this route in particular: garment cartons, which almost always measure heavier than they weigh, and December–January fog across the Doab, which can quietly add a day to the surface leg without anything actually going wrong.
Chikankari going both directions, state paperwork, hospital files and family cartons.
Chikankari orders and boutique stock
This is the trade that gives the lane its character, and it runs in both directions. Bengaluru boutiques and independent labels in Indiranagar, Jayanagar and Koramangala buy chikankari kurtas, dupattas and yardage from Lucknow karkhanas; fabric, thread cards, measurement sets and rejected lots go back north for correction. White and off-white embroidered cloth is the one cargo where packing genuinely matters — we line the carton with a poly sheet before the goods go in, because a scuffed or damp-marked white kurta is a write-off, not a discount.
Documents for state offices and courts
Lucknow is where Uttar Pradesh is administered, and a steady share of this lane is paper: tender submissions, affidavits, allotment and mutation papers, Board and university records, GST notices being answered, and files for advocates working the Lucknow bench. Always express, always with the recipient's mobile written on the AWB, and tell us if a filing date is attached so we book the air leg the same evening.
Medical reports ahead of an SGPGI or KGMU referral
Lucknow is the referral hospital city for a very large catchment, and families in Bengaluru regularly send scan films, biopsy slides in sealed carriers, discharge summaries and case files ahead of a relative's appointment. Send them flat in a rigid envelope rather than rolled, keep the originals with the patient wherever you can, and book express — a report that arrives after the consulting date has cost the whole trip.
Wedding shopping and trousseau
Silk sarees bought on Bengaluru's silk counters, blouse pieces, dry gift sets and outfits for a Lucknow wedding, sent ahead so nobody has to fight airline baggage limits with a suit carrier. Book it to land at least three clear days before the function and give us a relative's number who will be at the house during the day, not the bride's phone.
Study material for state-exam aspirants
Lucknow carries one of the country's larger civil-services and state-exam coaching populations, and this lane moves the printed side of it — test series booklets, standard reference sets, current-affairs compilations, notes photocopied in Bengaluru and sent to a cousin preparing up north. Books are heavy and cheap to send on surface: the bulk band from 35 kg is the same ₹120/kg.
Dry pantry staples for a UP kitchen
Filter coffee powder, rasam and sambar podi, sealed dry snacks, packaged sweets in factory wrapping — sent by Bengaluru households to family who have developed a taste for them. The rule is simple and it is stricter than most senders expect: sealed, dry, and no free oil. Awadhi cooking runs on gravy and ghee, so this is exactly the lane where people ask about sending food that cannot travel — the list below explains where the line falls.
A short, real list.
Network prohibitions first, then the specific refusals we see on Bengaluru → Lucknow bookings, which cluster around food, fragrance and festival buying:
Banned outright
- Liquids in any form, including retail-sealed bottles
- Aerosols, deodorant sprays and pressurised cans
- Perfume, attar and alcohol-based fragrance
- Matches, lighters and flammable solids
- Currency, bullion and loose precious stones
- Tobacco products, paan masala and zarda
Where Bengaluru → Lucknow bookings go wrong
- Cooked Awadhi food — the single most common request on this lane and the one we most often have to refuse. Kebabs, korma, biryani, nihari, anything with gravy or with ghee that will melt: none of it can be booked. It is not a packing problem, it is that no courier network accepts cooked perishable food, and four to five days on a road leg would settle the question anyway.
- Homemade ghee and oil-packed pickle — ghee sent to parents is a genuine seasonal pattern out of Bengaluru and it is a liquid the moment the container warms up. Factory-sealed jars with a printed tax invoice are sometimes accepted on surface; a steel dabba tied with cloth never is.
- Attar and ittar vials — Lucknow's own perfume trade means people buy small fragrance bottles here to send as gifts, and the reverse leg attracts them even more. Every one of them is a prohibited liquid, alcohol-free or not. Send the empty presentation box if you must; carry the vial yourself.
- Fresh mithai and mawa sweets — festival and wedding boxes bought in Bengaluru sweet shops. Milk-based sweets do not survive the run and are refused; sealed, shelf-stable packaged sweets with a printed expiry are fine.
- Loose lithium cells and power banks in gift parcels — Bengaluru is where family gadgets get bought, and a spare battery slipped in beside a phone is the usual reason a consignment gets held. A cell sealed inside a device is accepted on surface; anything loose is not, on either service.
AWB on WhatsApp. Track on dtdc.in. POD when it lands.
The AWB number reaches you on WhatsApp the moment the parcel is booked into DTDC, and you can check it any time at dtdc.in. The POD image reaches you within an hour of the delivery scan. Lucknow's last mile has two distinct personalities and it is worth knowing which one your address belongs to. New Lucknow — Gomti Nagar, Gomti Nagar Extension, Vibhuti Khand, Chinhat and the Sultanpur Road corridor — is wide, fast-growing and full of gated societies where the rider calls from the gate, so a recipient mobile is not optional. Old Lucknow and the Hazratganj–Aminabad–Chowk belt is the opposite: narrow trading lanes, shared building numbers and government offices with a receiving section that shuts well before the office does. For an office address, give us the department, the room or section, and the name of the person who signs — a parcel addressed only to a building in Hazratganj can circle a corridor for a day.
Specific to Bangalore → Lucknow.
Can I send Awadhi food, ghee sweets or home-cooked dishes to Lucknow?
Cooked food, no — and this comes up on this lane more than any other we run. Kebabs, korma, biryani, anything with gravy, and any sweet made with khoya or soaked in syrup are all refused by the network, and a 4–5 day surface leg would ruin them even if they were not. What does travel is anything sealed, dry and shelf-stable: filter coffee powder, sambar and rasam podi, factory-packed dry snacks, vacuum-sealed namkeen, packaged sweets with a printed manufacturing date. Homemade ghee is the borderline case people argue about most — a steel container of ghee is a liquid and we will not book it, while a factory-sealed jar with a tax invoice can sometimes ride surface. Ask before you pack rather than after the rider has arrived, and if the parcel is half food and half clothes, keep them in separate sealed bags inside the carton so one problem does not hold up the other.
How should I address a parcel to a government office in Hazratganj or a flat in Gomti Nagar?
They need opposite things. For a secretariat, directorate or court address around Hazratganj, write the department and the section or room number, not just the building, and add the name and mobile of whoever will actually sign for it — most of these buildings have a central receiving counter with its own cut-off, and after that hour a consignment waits for the next working day even though it reached Lucknow that morning. For Gomti Nagar, Gomti Nagar Extension, Vibhuti Khand or the newer Sultanpur Road societies, what matters is the tower and flat number plus a phone the recipient answers, because the rider will be stopped at the gate and a security desk will not accept a parcel on a name alone. In both cases give us the pin code rather than the locality name; the 226xxx series splits the city more finely than most senders assume.
I buy chikankari from Lucknow suppliers for my Bengaluru boutique. Can you handle the return leg too?
Yes. The lane runs both ways at the same starting rates — surface from ₹120/kg, express from ₹180/kg — and for a boutique buying regularly we can set a standing collection from the supplier's address in Lucknow rather than you arranging it each time. Two practical points on this specific cargo. First, it bills volumetric far more often than it bills actual: a carton of forty kurtas weighs very little and measures a lot, so send us the box dimensions and we will tell you the number you will really be charged on before it moves. Second, white and pastel embroidered cloth is unforgiving — ask the supplier to poly-wrap each piece and line the carton, because chikankari that arrives with a rub mark or a monsoon damp stain cannot be sold, and no freight claim covers a cosmetic fault. Corrections and rejected lots going back to the karkhana should carry a copy of your order sheet inside the carton and a second copy in a pouch taped outside.
Tell us the rough weight. We'll come back in minutes.
Other lanes from Bangalore
A rider at your Bengaluru address, usually within the hour.
Send the pickup address and a rough weight on WhatsApp, or call and we will book it over the phone. The Bengaluru desk runs 24×7, so a night booking on a lane this long is the sensible move, not an imposition.