Bhubaneswar: Arya Panda, an employee of a private company, had a trying time as ATMs of the State Bank of India ran out of money in the city.

While several states, including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat were affected in the crisis, residents of Bhubaneswar also felt the pinch of cash shortage.

"I was supposed to buy vegetables from Unit I daily market for my son's sacred thread ceremony on Wednesday. I went from one SBI ATM to another to withdraw cash, but most had their shutters down. Security guards deployed there said that the ATMs had no cash. Finally, I withdrew money from the ATM of a private bank," said Panda.

Sources in the SBI said that the ATMs of the nationalised bank are the worst sufferer of the crisis due to large customer base.

"Nationalised banks have the maximum number of ATMs in Bhubaneswar and the crisis has triggered as the amount of cash that used to be loaded has drastically reduced," said a SBI official.

While Khurda district has more than 630 ATMs, the maximum in the state, Bhubaneswar has more than 220 ATMs.

A bank official said around 50 per cent of ATMs belonged to the SBI.

"Earlier the private agency entrusted with the job of loading cash in ATMs used to be provided sufficient cash, but now that has dropped to half. They have dropped the amount of cash to have the money equally distributed in all the ATMs," said the bank official.

Customers also alleged lack of availability of notes of Rs 2,000 denomination in the ATMs.

"As the ATMs have ran out of bigger currency notes, we are forced to withdraw less money. With the city temperature hovering around 40°C, it has become extremely difficult to run from one ATM to another in search of cash," said a customer Anima Sahu.