Drop in demand for ATMs at railway stations

Shubhadeep Choudhury

New Delhi, April 30

If you are travelling by train and fail to find an ATM on the station premises, do not blame the Railways. In fact, it is likely that you may not even look for one as various digital modes of payments are more than enough to take care of sundry expenses during train travel.

The conclusion has been reached by the Railways after an ambitious plan for the installation of 2,000 ATMs at stations failed to get a single bidder. In January 2001, the Railway Board (RB) decided to permit the installation of ATMs by banks at railway stations and issued broad terms and conditions for the purpose. Subsequently, in 2017, the RB introduced a new policy under which 2,000 ATMs were to be installed at stations and nearby areas for a period of 10 years to generate revenue of over Rs 2,500 crore by the end of the contract period.

The Central Railways (CR) was nominated for conducting the tendering process on behalf of other zonal railways. No response, though, was received from the bidders on inviting tenders twice.

“Use of mobile banking, UPI applications like Paytm, BHIM, etc. and Internet banking has resulted in the drop in the usage of ATMs at railway stations premises,” noted the latest CAG report on the Railways.

The 2017 policy was withdrawn with instructions to the zonal railways to permit the installation of ATMs by banks at railway stations as per the decision taken in 2001. Test check by auditors in 32 divisions across the zonal railways, including Metro Railway and Railway Production Units, revealed a decrease in the number of ATMs from 666 in 2017 to 614 in 2021. During the review period (2017-21), it was found that the Railways had earned Rs 165.15 crore towards licence fee from banks for the installation of ATMs while Rs 10.37 crore was outstanding as of March 2021.