Railways allows nine more banks to set up ATMs at stations

New Delhi, Aug 9 (UNI) Pushing ahead with its plans to upgrade the profile of passenger amenities, the Railway Ministry has allowed nine more banks to install Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) at various stations in all Zonal Railways to improve the disbursal of railway tickets.

These banks together will set up ATMs at 440 locations, taking the number of these locations to 1833 across the country, a ministry official said today.

Of these, more than 1200 locations will have e-ticketing facility through Internet kiosks installed alongside the ATMs.

The nine banks, which have been allowed to set up ATMs, are: Bank of Rajasthan, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, ICICI Bank, UTI Bank, UCO Bank, HDFC Bank, Syndicate Bank and J&K Bank.

Out of 440 locations, ATMs will be set up at 75 stations in Western Railway, 65 stations in Central Railway, 63 in Northern Railway, 54 in Southern Railway, 53 in North Western Railway, 24 in West Central Railway, 21 in South Central Railway and 20 in Eastern Railway.

In addition, 15 ATMs will be set up in South Eastern Railway, 12 in South Western Railway, 11 in North Central Railway, six each in East Central and South East Central Railways and five each in East Coast, North Eastern and Northeast Frontier Railways.

Last year, the Railways had entered into an agreement with State Bank of India (SBI) for installation of ATMs at 682 railway stations across the country.

This was followed by allowing six more banks to install ATMs at 711 locations. These banks are; Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank, Indian Bank, Dena Bank, Union Bank of India and Bank of Baroda.

The ministry has asked all these banks to complete the installation of all ATMs by March 31, 2008.

UNI