Considered to be one of the busiest pilgrimage sites in the country, Katra base camp of Vaishnodevi Shrine will soon have a tourist post office.

"The post office of Katra in Reasi district will soon be developed into a Tourist Post Office, offering a long range of services including sale of picture postcards, philately products," chief postmaster general, John Samuel, told reporters in Jammu on Wednesday. He said that working hours of Bhawan Post Office will be extended for the benefit of tourists visiting the shrine.

The Department has also inaugurated a floating post office on Dal lake in Srinagar recently. The floating post office provides four varied functions- post office, post shop, post office museum and mobile collection, and delivery of mails.

"Tourists get the convenience of sending their letters and parcels through the post office to any place in India and abroad. What is more, they get the packaging materials and pre-paid parcel boxes to make it easy for them," he said.

The chief postmaster general said this initiative will bring a major turnaround in the revenue generation of the post office. "For the benefit of the tourists this post office sells picture post cards, greeting cards, books on Kashmir, stationeries and local souvenir items, along with the postage stamps," he said.

Customers can also call their friends and relatives in India and abroad and send their e-mail through the PCO services at the post office, he said.