Send a parcel from Bangalore to Varanasi. We pick up free.
Roughly 1,800 kilometres north to the 221xxx belt on the Ganga — 4–5 working days on DTDC surface, 2–3 by air express. This is a textile lane in both directions, so we pack for fabric. Free pickup anywhere in Bengaluru at 5 kg and above, including the Chickpet and Avenue Road trade quarter, Vijayanagar, Sanjaynagar and Uttarahalli.
Collected across Bengaluru's trade and residential belts, hauled north, delivered around the ghats.
Pickup, Bengaluru.
60–90 minutes across the core city. The Chickpet, Avenue Road and Balepet trade lanes are a special case — vehicle access is difficult and parking is effectively impossible, so the rider parks at the edge and walks in to the shop. Give us the shop name and the street and he will find it. Vijayanagar, Rajajinagar, Sanjaynagar and Uttarahalli are ordinary door collections. Fabric consignments are weighed and measured in front of you before sealing, because the volume matters more than the weight.
Bengaluru sortation.
Into the DTDC Bengaluru facility the same evening. Trade consignments should carry the tax invoice inside and a copy in the pouch outside; where the value crosses ₹50,000 the e-way bill has to be generated before dispatch, and it is far easier to arrange that while the shop is still open than to chase it once the parcel has moved.
Line-haul north.
Up through the centre of the country to the northern network and then east into the Purvanchal belt. Surface is 4–5 working days over the 1,800 kilometres; express lifts out of Kempegowda and completes in 2–3. From mid-December into January, dense fog across the north Indian plain slows the road leg — allow an extra day in those weeks or move a dated consignment to air.
Varanasi delivery.
Off the Varanasi beats across the 221xxx series. The newer areas — the university side, the cantonment stretch, Mahmoorganj, Sigra and the colony developments — are straightforward door deliveries. The old city behind the ghats is not, and neither is Ramnagar across the river; both are covered below, because that is where this lane needs planning rather than patience.
POD on WhatsApp.
Proof of delivery comes back on WhatsApp within the hour — the signature image, or the shop's receiving stamp for trade consignments, which is what a wholesaler needs to close the invoice at their end.
Starting rates, Bangalore → Varanasi.
Priced on actual or volumetric weight, whichever is greater, plus the fuel surcharge current on your booking date. GST is extra.
- 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 across Bengaluru at 5 kg and above, shop collections included. Volumetric weight is (L × W × H cm) ÷ 5000 and it decides almost every bill on this lane, because silk and finished garments weigh almost nothing and occupy a great deal of box. Fold flat, band the stack, use a shallow carton rather than a deep one, and let the rider measure before you tape it — the difference between a careless box and a tight one is routinely a whole weight slab. Trade consignments above ₹50,000 need an e-way bill travelling with the invoice.
Silk in both directions, university traffic, and the trade behind the sarees.
Banarasi sarees, sold from Bengaluru
The signature cargo on this route, and it moves south as often as it moves north. Bengaluru boutiques, exhibition sellers and online sellers buy from Varanasi weavers and dealers, and the flow back the other way is exchanges, returns, unsold stock after an exhibition, and pieces going home for repair or re-finishing. A saree is light and bulky and worth far more than it weighs, which makes it the classic case for declaring the value rather than under-declaring it to shave the bill.
Raw silk yarn, zari and weaving inputs
Karnataka is India's biggest mulberry silk producer and Bengaluru sits at the centre of that trade, which makes this a genuine industrial supply lane and not just a retail one. Reeled and twisted yarn, dyed thread, zari and testing samples move north to weaving households in Varanasi's traditional clusters. These consignments need a clean invoice, a declared value and dry, sealed packing — yarn absorbs moisture and a damp carton on a five-day road run is a ruined consignment.
Boutique orders and wedding purchases
Bengaluru's ethnic-wear retail and the wedding trade behind it generate a constant flow of finished garments north — blouse pieces stitched here, lehenga and kurta sets, dupattas, made-to-measure orders finished in Bengaluru for a family wedding in Varanasi. Almost always volumetric, almost always better sent in one flat carton than in three shopping bags boxed separately.
University and campus shipments
Varanasi's university district is one of the largest in the country and the traffic follows its calendar — books and reference sets, a laptop, printed thesis and dissertation copies, project material, hostel kit at the start of a session, and the same going the other way when a graduate takes a job in Bengaluru. Hostel deliveries need the hall name, the room and the roll number, and they need to happen while the campus is actually in session.
Agarbatti, dhoop and puja retail stock
Bengaluru is a major centre of incense manufacturing and Varanasi is one of the largest retail markets in the country for exactly that, so the lane carries wholesale agarbatti and dhoop consignments north routinely. Sealed manufacturer packs travel fine. Camphor, which retailers try to add to the same order, does not — it is a flammable solid, and it is covered below.
Family parcels for the Purvanchal households in Bengaluru
A large eastern Uttar Pradesh community works in Bengaluru, and outside the trade traffic this lane runs on ordinary domestic parcels — winter clothing before December, medicines in original packaging, documents and certificates, a phone bought here, gifts before Diwali and Chhath. Small, under 5 kg, and the reason people ask about minimum billable weight more often than about the per-kilo rate.
A short, real list.
Prohibited by DTDC and across the network. The second block is what actually turns up on a textile-and-temple lane, and none of it is obvious until someone tells you:
Banned outright
- Camphor, resins and flammable solids
- Attar, essential oils and any perfume liquid
- Dyes, mordants and industrial chemicals
- Gold and silver bullion and loose precious stones
- Aerosols and pressurised containers
- Liquids of any kind, sealed or otherwise
Common Bengaluru → Varanasi misjudgements
- Camphor tablets added to a puja or incense order — the most specific refusal on this lane. Camphor is a flammable solid and cannot travel by air or surface, whatever the pack size. The agarbatti, dhoop and the rest of the order ships perfectly well; the kapur has to be bought at the other end.
- Attar and sandalwood oil sent with fabric — a small vial tucked into a saree box, sent as a courtesy with a trade order. It is a flammable liquid, it comes out at booking, and if it leaks in transit it destroys the silk it was packed with. That second reason is the one that persuades people.
- Loose zari and precious-metal thread declared as fabric — real zari carries metallic content and value, and it is not the same booking as a cotton consignment. Declare it, invoice it, and let us cover it. Bullion in any form is banned outright, so do not try to move it inside a fabric parcel.
- Chemical dyes and colour-fixing agents for weavers — sent north with yarn more often than you would expect. Powdered and liquid dyes are classed as chemicals and are refused; the yarn itself is a normal consignment.
- Ganga jal on the return leg — worth knowing before someone in Varanasi packs a bottle for you. It is a liquid, it is refused in both directions, and there is no exemption for it. Dry prasad, sealed sweets and packaged items come south without a problem.
AWB on WhatsApp. Track on dtdc.in. POD when it lands.
The AWB reaches you on WhatsApp as soon as we book the consignment, and it tracks end to end at dtdc.in. What you should plan for is the last mile, because Varanasi has two delivery realities inside one city. The newer areas — the university side, the cantonment stretch, Sigra, Mahmoorganj and the colonies — are ordinary door deliveries and behave like any other city. The old quarter behind the ghats does not: those lanes are too narrow for a delivery vehicle and much of the area around the ghats and the temple approach is closed to traffic altogether, so a rider parks at the edge of the pedestrian zone and walks the last stretch. That works, but only if he can reach the consignee by phone — a shop shutter down or a house with nobody in means the whole walk is wasted and the parcel goes back to the branch. Put a working mobile on every AWB. Add a landmark, a ghat name or a well-known shop rather than relying on a house number. And expect delivery windows to tighten during the big festival weeks and the Shravan pilgrim season, when traffic across the city is diverted and whole approaches are closed to vehicles for days at a time. Ramnagar, across the river, sits on its own beat and can run a day behind the city.
Specific to Bangalore → Varanasi.
How should silk sarees be packed for the Bangalore–Varanasi run?
Flat, dry and declared. Fold each piece with tissue between the layers so the zari does not abrade against itself, band the stack, wrap the whole stack in a clean polythene sheet against moisture, and put it in a shallow carton that fits it rather than a deep one with air in it. That last part is money rather than fussiness: you are billed on volumetric weight — length by breadth by height in centimetres, divided by 5000 — whenever it exceeds the actual weight, and with silk it almost always does. A tightly packed box routinely bills a whole slab lower than a loose one holding the same sarees. Declare the value and keep the invoice inside as well as in the outer pouch; a saree consignment is worth many times its weight and under-declaring it to save a little leaves you with nothing to claim against. Above ₹50,000 on a GST invoice, the e-way bill has to travel with the consignment. Never let anyone add attar, oil or camphor to the same box.
Can you deliver into the old city lanes near the ghats?
Yes, and it is worked every day, but it is a walking delivery rather than a vehicle one and that changes what you should put on the AWB. The lanes behind the ghats are too narrow for a delivery vehicle, and the approaches around the temple and the main ghat crossings are closed to traffic, so the rider parks at the edge of the pedestrian zone and carries the parcel in. He gets one attempt at that. So: give a landmark, the nearest ghat or gali name and a recognisable shop or building rather than only a house number, and give a mobile that will be answered. During the major festival weeks and the Shravan pilgrim season, whole approaches are shut and diverted for days, and deliveries in the old quarter run to whatever window the police allow — a day's slack is realistic in those periods. The cantonment side, the university area, Sigra and the newer colonies have none of these constraints and deliver normally.
I buy Banarasi sarees for a Bengaluru shop. Can you handle regular two-way consignments?
Yes, that is a standing pattern on this lane and it is worth setting up properly rather than booking ad hoc. Northbound we collect from Chickpet, Avenue Road, Vijayanagar or wherever your shop or godown sits, at a scheduled slot rather than on a call each time, and a recurring volume gets a contract rate sheet instead of the counter rate. Surface at ₹120/kg suits stock movements at 4–5 working days; express at ₹180/kg is for exhibition deadlines and customer orders with a date on them. For the southbound leg from your Varanasi supplier we can arrange the booking at that end so the consignment moves on the same account and tracking rather than through whoever the dealer happens to use. What makes the whole thing work is paperwork discipline: a tax invoice inside every carton, an e-way bill above ₹50,000, a declared value that matches the invoice, and a photograph of the packed carton before it is sealed. Call the desk and ask for the trade rate rather than booking through the form — the numbers are different.
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A real person at your Bengaluru door, in about an hour.
WhatsApp the pickup address and a rough weight, or call the desk and talk the consignment through — worth doing on a fabric lane, where how the box is packed changes what you pay. The Bengaluru desk runs 24×7, so a collection after the shop shuts is normal here.