Internet, server speeds delay exchange process

Chennai: The commercial areas of Chennai, including Sowcarpet, Pursawalkkam, Egmore and T Nagar, saw poor business transactions for a second consecutive day on Thursday. People and traders in these areas spent somewhere between two to three hours to change their demonetised currencies. Banks including Indian Bank, Axis and ICICI branches located in Purasawalkkam, Sowcarpet and Egmore saw manageable crowds till 11 am, but by noon the crowd swelled with queues extending up to the parking lots of the banks. Sensing trouble, bank managers opened additional counters, but the crowd subsided only after 4 pm.

“About 2,800 people visited our branch on Thursday of whom 1,300 exchanged old notes of Rs 4,000”, said Munagapaati S. Balaraj, assistant general manager, Indian Overseas Bank (Pursawalkkam Branch). It was a tough day with public visiting our bank throughout the day and some of my colleagues even skipped their lunch, as the counters were full till late evening. We deployed all our resources to ensure maximum transactions,” Balaraj added.

“The crowd was manageable till 11.00 am but then the Internet and bank servers got slow and delayed transactions. My colleagues worked beyond their optimum capacity considering the public interest”, said K. Ganesh, a bank staffer with ICICI Bank (Vepery branch). Though the bankers had a tough day, traders and public rued that their hardship continued into a second consecutive day. “I had demonetised currencies amounting to Rs 80,000 in hand after depositing the old currencies, I was able to withdraw only Rs 14,000 (Rs 4,000 by exchanging notes and another Rs 10,000 using my cheque) but all my payments and transactions had been adversely affected”, complained S. Thangappa, who owns a provision store in Periamet.