Doorstep delivery

With the present pandemic restricting entry to visitors, vendors, delivery personnel and others at many residential complexes, elderly and infirm occupants find it inconvenient to collect parcels from the security guards at the entrance/gates. But in Cusrow Baug over 230 families of the 500+ avail of a delivery service that drops off parcels received for them at the colony’s main gate to their flats. The service, run by a firm called Exprs that operates as "nano distribution centers” was contracted by the Cusrow Baug United Sports and Welfare League (CBUSWL) in August 2020, noted honorary secretary Hoshang Jal and committee member Hoshaang Gotla on June 30, 2021. Those availing of the service include senior citizens, tenants living on higher floors and in buildings away from the main gate. "Cusrow Baug is a 15-acre area with 18 buildings housing 546 flats,” Jal pointed out.
The service, described by Jal as "safe and convenient as residents do not have to interact with multiple people,” is available on demand for a fee of Rs 250 a month, via an app or in cash, for unlimited door deliveries from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. An app informs residents of parcels received at the gate and the expected time of delivery to the flat.
Despite the monthly charges being increased from Rs 100 to Rs 250, "the tenants have been willing to pay the increase and requested we continue the facility,” explained Gotla. Though "other colonies allow deliveries at doorstep… We decided to not go this route as we do not want cases to escalate again.” Colony resident Dr Dilnavaz Gamadia, a subscriber to Exprs, told Parsiana that the service "is a very convenient and much needed facility in these times, especially for senior citizens like me living alone and house bound.”
The residents of Rustom Baug, however, stopped the service within five-six months after repeated delays and having to contend with "Mari marghi pighli gayi (My frozen chicken thawed) kind of day-to-day issues,” said Xerxes Dastur, treasurer of their Welfare Association and also Bombay Parsi Punchayet trustee. Vendors and delivery personnel are allowed to carry parcels to individual flats at the Byculla colony.

Cusrow Baug: providing a "convenient and much needed" parcel delivery service

"We are open… All deliveries come to the door since last July (2020),” a resident of Jer Baug informed us. This Baug uses an app called Mygate to monitor comings and goings. "The idea is (to have) awareness about who is coming and going and whose house the person is visiting.” The names, numbers and pictures of delivery personnel are shared on the phones of the residents when parcels intended for them arrive. The app also logs entry and exit for house help. "You can inform the security in advance if visitors are coming,” he said.
"We have to pick up deliveries from the gate,” Honoze Nekoo, vice president of the newly vitalized Nowrosjee N. Wadia Welfare League at Nowroz Baug informed us. The League has a new committee in place that is "streamlining various aspects… We will be back with a variety of activities planned for our members,” read a circular dated June 19 from president Roozbeh Mamlatdar. The League was formed in 1908 but was inactive "for some time now.” Another welfare association, the Nowroze Baug Play Centre conducts events regularly for residents at the Baug, the first to be built out of the five Wadia baugs in Bombay.
At Godrej Baug, "during strict lockdown only watchmen at the gate would periodically carry parcels to earmarked flats. Now when free movement is permitted, such a service is not required,” mentioned a resident. At the non-gated Mancherji Joshi Parsi Colony at Dadar, reportedly the largest agglomeration of community members in the city, "the policy varies from building to building… Not heard about any restrictions on door delivery… But, yes, if the municipality puts a banner, those individual buildings do not allow vendors during the quarantine period,” two long-time residents told us.
At Behram Baug in Jogeshwari there are "no restrictions or stopping… The delivery people come up to the doorsteps,” a resident told us. F. J.