Cash hunt: 1 ATM has cash after 6 empty ones

Nagpur: Nikhil Chavan a student, had to travel over 2 kms from Chaoni in Sadar till Mankapur to find an ATM, with cash. Chavan had to travel to Pune on Wednesday night and needed cash for the journey.
The first ATM he visited was of the SBI Chaoni branch which had a long queue. He moved further to find an IDBI Bank ATM which was out of cash, after that it was a Bank of India branch where the ATM Chavan found was shut since November 8.
Finally he had some luck at the SBI ATM just across the road, from where he could withdraw Rs2500.
TOI too did a similar hunt with Lubna Sheikh also a student. After five ATMs, in a distance of 3.5km only the sixth one had cash. After fifty days of demonetization, finding an ATM, loaded with cash, continues to be a painstaking effort.
The ATMs were calibrated to dispense Rs2000 notes, followed by new Rs500 notes last month itself. Cash filling at off site ATMs (those not attached to a branch) is still not a priority for many banks. TOI came across, empty ATMs of Axis Bank, Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda, Indusind Bank and Union Bank.
Sheikh started from Axix Bank at Mansha Chowk near Jafar Nagar, at a distance of 3.5km she could draw Rs2000 from the Katol Road branch of ICICI Bank. There were 5 empty ATMs in between.
In another stretch from Bharat Nagar near Futala Lake to Dharampeth, only 2 out of 6 ATMs in a distance of 2km had cash.
The city has over 400 ATMs of various banks, but TOI’s trips showed that there was one ATM with cash after 5-6 empty in a distance 2 to 3 kms. The majority of ATMs seen working were that of SBI, PNB and HDFC Bank. Among the least were that of Union Bank, Axis Bank, Bank of India and Bank of Baroda.
Sources in the banking industry say even today there is hardly any ATM where cash is lasting 24 hours. The machines are running dry after half an hour to 12-14 hours.
Majority of the ATMs did not have the new Rs500 note, said the customers including that of SBI. Normally the ATMs have a capacity to hold cash till Rs25 lakh after introduction of Rs2000, but not all the ATMs are filled up full capacity. Prior to demonetization some, if not all were filled to full capacity of Rs13 lakh as Rs1000 was the highest denomination then. A source in the PSU banks said ATMs in his banks are filled up with only Rs2.5 to 3 lakh a day.
Faisal Ali, said he could only withdraw Rs2000 as against an upper limit of Rs2500 from a SBI ATM using a Bank of India card. Though others were getting the full amount.