Saturday, a public holiday, resulted in ATMs in the city running dry due to more people making withdrawals.
In Indiranagar, the machines which still have the money to dispense saw long queues outside the vending outlets.
Officials say that the ‘cash crunch’ was not because Saturday also happened to be a bank holiday.
However, the fact that banks have shared ATM services, it is likely that the holiday is the ‘cause for the cash crunch’. “I had to go to three machines before I found one that worked,” said Deepali R, a software professional, who wanted to withdraw cash in RT Nagar at noon.
The Central Business District had no problems, however. “A friend and I stopped at an ATM on Brigade Road in the afternoon; it was working fine,” said Anjali J, a student. “We had no issues whatsoever.”
Many feel “more than usual” money should be fed into the ATM machines around holidays. Around central business districts the money-vending machines should be made functional on holidays too, they feel.