Many ATMs in Hyderabad remain shut

Hyderabad: Though all ATMs were supposed to open on Friday, many remained closed as the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were yet to be fully flushed out from the machines. Bank officials said that the process of reconfiguring the machines was still on.

SBI’s cash deposit machines started accepting up to Rs 50,000 from Thursday midnight. With ATMs not working on Friday too, the public continued to be hit by inadequate circulation of lower denomination currency.

In the IT corridor, the shutters of the ATMs of State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Bank of Baroda, Yes Bank and Dena Bank were down. ATMs of many banks ran dry.

From Friday, customers were allowed to withdraw up to '2,000 per day from ATMs till November 18. The withdrawal limit will be raised to '4,000 per day per card from November 19.

Commuters continued to suffer due to lack of lower denomination currency with conductors of RTC buses and staff at ticket booking counters of bus and railway stations running out of change.

While RTC staff and railways accepted old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes as long as they had “change” to return, the travel plans of many people went awry and got inordinately delayed as they went searching for lesser denomination currency or waited at booking counters for other passengers to come with some change.

Canteens and other commercial establishments at bus stands and railway stations refused to accept '500 and '1,000 notes. Food vendors on trains too refused higher denomination currency, inconveniencing commuters.