Too few ATMs in Puri to meet festive rush

BHUBANESWAR: For a generation that prefers to carry cards to cash, it may be a testing time at ATMs in Puri during Nabakalebara Rath Yatra rush.
The Holy Town, which is expecting 30 lakh pilgrims on July 18, has only 47 ATMs. Six more will be made operational very soon. Bulk of the ATMs (33) belongs to SBI.
With one ATM for over 55,000 people, one can expect long queues at these kiosks.If every tenth visitor needs to draw the paper money, each ATM will have to entertain over 5,000 people. Since most roadside shops and transport vehicles transact in cash, people have to go looking for the machines spewing the currency notes.
SP (Puri) Ashish Singh different banks were interested to set up temporary ATMs during the festival, keeping the anticipated crowd in mind. "The SBI alone will open 12 new temporary ATMs. Various other banks too have come forward. I don't think the cash dispensing machines are going to be a big problem during the mega event," he said. Elaborate security arrangements will be made to regulate the rush, he added.
A banker, preferring anonymity, said not much thought has been given to the need for ATMs during the rush. "Even if a fraction of the crowd look for ATMs, most of these would run dry unless the banks plan concrete cash re-filling steps in advance," he said.
Complaints of ATMs running dry were reported during last year Rath Yatra when the crowd was far less.
"I remember frantically looking for an ATM during Rath Yatra last year. When I found one, the queue was so long that I had to spent over an hour waiting for my turn," said Tushar Gupta, a software professional from the state now based in Hyderabad.
Though the official website of Nabakalebara provide information on other utilities such information about travel agents, hospitals, clinics and shelters, it doesn't have mapped the ATMs in the beach town, said Bibhudatta Tripathy, who claims to be following the site religiously. Many other websites such as www.shreekhetra.com, www.bankatmlocator.in, and bank sites do have information on the ATM locations.