ATM Machines to dispense railway tickets

ATM's in railway stations will not only be cash-vending machines but will also provide long distance railway tickets, sparing bank account holders the ordeal of waiting in queues at railway counters.

Six public-sector banks have entered into an agreement with the Indian Railways to provide this facility in their ATM's to be installed in select railway stations across the country.

The six banks - State Bank of India, Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank, Dena Bank, Union Bank of India and Bank of Baroda - have proposed to set-up 1000 such ATM's.

Central and Western Railway officials said they have initiated action for installing the ATM's and the process of dialogue with the banks for zeroing in on their location at the stations were being finalized.

"We will be installing 190 ATM's on Central Railway and 193 on the Western Railway and the space to be allotted in the stations has also been finalized," Central Railway chief commercial manager Shailendra Kumar said.

A senior Western Railway official said a high number of ATM's will be installed on Mumbai's suburban stations, with Mumbai region having heavy traffic, it was only natural to install a high number of ATM's here. It was likely that by this year-end they could get operational, he added.

"The purpose is to reduce crowding and make it as pleasant as possible for travelers," Mr Kumar said.

"The ATM locations will be such that they will not impinge on the free flow of passengers in the station," the official said. The banks will be installing the ATM's along with a kiosk where ticketing transactions will take place, he added.

State bank of India will install 681 ATMs across the country, including 300 at small stations in rural areas.

Dena Bank, plans to install its ATMs at 117 railway stations, which includes all metros and in several of Mumbai's suburban railway stations and Union Bank of India will be installing 66 ATMs across ten centres in the country.Bank of Baroda chairman A.K. Khandelwal, had also recently announced his bank's initiative in this regard. The bank plans to install 201 ATM's. "A few have already been installed, the first being in Delhi, while the others will be installed after sorting out some logistics issues,"