Introduction: Post operative period is a critical period which can include numerous complications either due to surgery or anaesthesia. One of the important preventable complications is post operative urinary retention (POUR). With this background, we conducted a study to investigate the prophylactic effect of tamsulosin, a super–selective alpha–1a adrenergic blocking agent, on the development of urinary retention in men undergoing elective inguinal hernia surgery. Material and methods: A randomised double blind controlled prospective trial was conducted on the patients undergoing hernia surgery in the department of surgery of tertiary care hospital in Mumbai. The study was carried from June 2015 to March 2017 which included the recruitment of the patients, intervention and follow up. Those patients with history of active or past urinary tract infection, history of use of alpha blockers in the past, history of urological surgery, patients with CKD with dialysis and those with indwelling cathter were excluded from the study. Two groups were randomised into study group and control group. The proportion of catheterisation was studied among both the groups. Results: The two groups were comparable in terms of age, weight, side and type of hernia. About 15.6% required catheterisation among the placebo group and 2.6% required catheterisation among the study group and this difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). There was no significant difference between the post void volume and prostate size among the two groups (p>0.05) Conclusions: Tamsulosin started in peri operative period in cases of hernia repair surgery, reduces postoperative morbidity of retention of urine, and chances of invasive intervention i.e. catheterization and in turn the financial burden of catheterization and associated morbidity.