Automated teller machines (ATMs) continued to have a dry run in the steel city on Monday while banks remained closed for Guru Purnima, prolonging the ordeal of the common man.
Bank officials said that the situated was expected to look up somewhat after Thursday noon when the new currency notes would be loaded into the cash disbursers. The new series of Rs 500 will reach Jamshedpur from RBI-Patna on Tuesday evening and it will take around 48 hours to feed the notes in the nearly 500 ATMs across the city.
"We have received a circular in our official mail that the new series of Rs 500 notes arrived at RBI-Patna today (Monday) from the currency note press (in Nashik) and will be reaching Jamshedpur by Tuesday evening. All the banks have asked their private agencies (service providers) to arrange sufficient manpower for re-configuration of the cassettes of the ATMs for placing the new notes within 24 hours. After re-configuration, the new Rs 500 notes will be replenished in ATMs by Thursday noon," said Phalguni Roy, East Singhbhum lead district manager and Bank of India official.
According to Roy, the problem of ATMs exhausting cash within a few hours could be controlled to a great extent once the new Rs 500 notes are available. "The cassettes calibrated for Rs 100 can hold, at the most, notes worth Rs 2 lakh, which is the reason why ATMs are going dry within hours. The introduction of Rs 500 and extension of the withdrawal limit from Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500 per day, ATMs can serve people for a longer period and queues will become shorter," the official added.
On Monday, people crowded before those few ATMs that dispensed cash.
"The banks are closed. I am out since 7am and have so far visited three ATMs. But such is my luck that whenever my turn came, the cash stock got exhausted. I am still in queue," said Sudeep Bhowmick, a Sakchi-based jeweller spotted standing near an IDBI ATM in Bistupur around noon.
While the 500-odd banks didn't cater to customers, it was no holiday for the staff, who had to check the deposited old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, make entries in computers and send the cash to currency chests.
