Pay a bomb to draw cash outside Kolkata airport – Times of India

Kolkata News

A kiosk inside the terminal that once had an ATM

KOLKATA: An airport that has started clocking near 50,000-plus footfall daily — 50,951 on Monday — doesn’t have a single ATM outside it.
The nearest ATM kiosk outside the terminal building is located more than 600m away on Jessore Road, where one either has to take a cab or a rickshaw and shell out anything between Rs 100 to Rs 150 or take a 20-minute walk to withdraw cash.
“Last week, I came out of the airport and realised I had little cash with me. I needed cash as the pre-paid taxi counter wasn’t accepting cards because of some glitch and the app cabs were refusing to ply without cash payment. But sadly, I didn’t find a single ATM anywhere nearby. I had to walk all the way to VIP Road and then further towards Jessore Road with two trolley bags before I could get a functional ATM and draw some money. How can an international airport even run like this?” said Dwaipayan Roy, who reached Kolkata from Bangalore.
Soumya Mukherjee, another frequent flyer, said he had faced the issue numerous times amidst the pandemic. “It has happened to me twice that I had forgotten to withdraw cash from inside the airport and outside, I found none. I had no option but to book a dodgy cab from a tout agreeing to pay extra money only to stop at an ATM midway to my home at Hooghly to withdraw cash,” said Mukherjee, a management consultant.
Rickshaw pullers conceded to mint flyers, agreeing to take them to a functional ATM outside the airport and bring them back for anything between Rs 300-Rs 350. “Passengers not habituated with the area seek our help to find an ATM and it is a set rate for us to take the passengers to an ATM out of the airport and bring them back,” said one of the rickshaw pullers near the Volvo bus stand.
While harrowing passengers fume at the absence of such a basic facility, airport authorities plead helplessness claiming they have been trying to find a suitable bidder for the last one and a half years and have issued two different tenders, every time lowering the amount but haven’t found a bank who agreed to pay the quoted rent and operate an ATM at the two vacant spots opposite gate 2A/2B of the arrival terminal.
Even inside the airport, there are only two functional ATMs operating currently with two other kiosks remaining empty.
“It’s a troubling issue. There were three-four banks operating ATMs inside and outside the airport but during the pandemic, their contract ended and they never renewed. Since then, we have called tender twice but haven’t received any response. I have now approached the head office to reduce the rate further. We can’t just hand over the ATM to some bank. We have to follow certain procedures. With passenger footfall coming back to pre-pandemic level, we hope we will find a response this time,” said C Pattabhi, the airport director.

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Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/pay-a-bomb-to-draw-cash-outside-airport/articleshow/87745083.cms