Mangaluru: Over 30,000 travellers make use of Mangaluru central railway station daily, that has a history of over 100 years. Every day, there are more than 50 trains that pass through this station. Yet, there is no ATM of any bank in or around the station.

Travellers who come to this station to reserve their tickets, inevitably need to travel at least half-a-kilometre to withdraw the required amount from the ATM near Hampankatta or Attavar.

This does not mean that the ATM facility has never come over here. A few months back, there was an ATM of State Bank of Travancore within the station and two ATM’s outside of the station of Canara Bank and Dena Bank respectively.

But, the ATM within the station was stopped after the State bank of Travancore merged with SBI. Dena Bank ATM stopped its service after suffering short circuit. Canara Bank ATM finally stopped its services giving the excuse of rainwater seepage from the roof and frequent repair works due to rats. Hence, since last October, passengers are suffering this lack of ATM service.

If the condition of Mangaluru Central Railway Station is so, no ATM of any bank has ever been set up at Mangaluru Junction Railway Station located at Kankanady-Padil. Daily, 4,000-5,000 travellers make use of this railway station. Here, if a traveller needs to withdraw money, he needs to travel to Pumpwell which is at least 2 kilometres away from the station. Every half-an-hour, a train arrives and departs from this station.

“Corporation Bank and Punjab National Bank have come forward to provide ATM service at Mangaluru Central Railway Station. The proposal has been sent to Chennai main office. As soon as the approval is received, tenders will be called for the next month,” informed Kishan Kumar M.S., Mangaluru Central Deputy Station Manager.

Kumaran from Kasaragod, who had come to the station to book a ticket spoke with ‘Udayavani’ and expressed his thoughts about the lack of ATM facility in the station. We have come so forward with technology, but we should not give lame excuses to escape from providing necessary facilities. How come there is not a single ATM at this railways station where so many people come and leave? He questioned.

The railway officers themselves say that banks which establish ATM’s every few steps are uninterested to install their ATM’s in the railway station due to the high rent charges. To establish an ATM here, the bank has to pay an annual fee of 4,60,739 rupees to the station.

This rent can go up by 10% every year. If nothing, every year at least 40,000 rupees need to be paid more than the predetermined amount. Due to this reasons, banks which had previously established their ATM’s here have stopped their service. Since the rent is decided by the railway board, the station cannot reduce the rent.