Southern Railway’s Palakkad Division has invited bids from interested public sector and scheduled commercial Indian banks to install automated teller machines (ATMs) at Mangaluru Central and Mangaluru Junction railway stations without fixing any reserve price.

The Central station, which witnesses an average daily footfall of about 31,000, and the Junction that sees an average footfall of 5,000 a day, do not have any ATM as of now. Those in urgent need of cash have to walk at least a kilometre from Central station to reach the nearest ATM and while at Junction, ATMs are located far away.

The e-tender comes after the Railway Ministry brought out a revised ATM policy in November last relaxing ground rent for ATMs. ATM is not a commercial venture, the Ministry said while bringing out the revised policy and termed it a service to passengers as well as Railwaymen.

It said the lease rent for ATMs should be decided by market forces and there should not be any reserve price for the lease rent. The policy said quotes/ bids have to be invited from banks to open ATMs on railway premises and the lease should be given to the highest bidder. The Railways may even persuade banks to open ATMs on their premises wherever required, the policy said.

Though Mangaluru Central had an ATM a few years ago, the bank concerned removed it owing to exorbitant rent (about ₹4 lakh a year) being paid to the Railways. The earlier policy envisaged charging of 6% of the land value as the base rent to open ATMs with an annual 7% increase in the lease rental, thus dissuading banks from providing the service on Railway premises.

The Railways would offer 6 ft X 6 ft space within the station premises to install the ATM, the cost of which has to be borne by the bank concerned. It, however, does not guarantee enough number of footfall commensurate to the lease rent.

Annual increase

While the revised ATM policy is silent on annual increase of lease rental, the Railways has said the lease rent would be increased by 10% annually. The policy was revised to encourage banks to open ATMs on Railway premises which hitherto were hesitant due to high rentals and this annual increase may dissuade banks, said an officer from a PSU bank.