Kolkata: With bank branches providing some respite to customers in terms of cash availability, ATMs in and around the city continued to be the main source of woes for people as most of them downed their shutters.
None of the ATMs, whether on-site or off-site, in the central business district of the metropolis were open, causing immense inconvenience to the account holders.
With Friday’s announcement that exchange of notes would be made available only to senior citizens, queues were seen in the bank branches in several parts of the city, which comprised mainly younger and the middle-aged across genders.
“These people have mainly come for withdrawals from their accounts,” a manager with Bank of Baroda’s Dum Dum branch said. He said it was expected that the problem would disappear by the end of next week when the new Rs 500 currency notes were likely to be introduced here.
In many places, long queues were seen in front of ATMs where cash vans were parked outside. “This happens particularly in the evening hours. In anticipation that the ATMs will get refilled at this time, people start to form queues,” said a security guard manning a Bank of India ATM in north Kolkata.
