Experts have said that all ATMs in India need to be calibrated afresh according to their weight, dimensions, design, and security features and this process may take over a month. They also say that since the new Rs. 500 and Rs. 2,000 notes would be different in size and shape from the old ones and engineers would have to readjust the cash trays, or cassettes, and the software running the machines.
Recently, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, The finance ministry is constantly monitoring the cash replacement exercise.Speaking about this, an executive said, The immediate focus after the government’s decision was to flush out the spiked currency notes from the machines. The second step would be to replenish the machines with new notes. But before that, they had to ensure every ATM recognises the new notes and manages multiple replenishments including those of lower denominations.
A leading banker said, A technician has to physically visit an ATM for reconfiguration that would normally take about four hours for each machine. That means the reconfiguration of all two lakh machines would take about 8,00,000 man hours.