THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Railways officials and passengers were put through a harrowing time on Wednesday due to the withdrawal of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes as the Railways ran out of change.
Many people turned up at ticket counters with currencies of bigger denomination, exhausting the supply of small change the officials have at their disposal. At Trivandrum Central, incidents of commotion between passengers and ticket counter officials were reported on Wednesday morning.
As the railways were allowed to accept the currencies withdrawn by the government, many conveniently took it as a counter to get small change. “Some of them came with Rs 500 for platform tickets, worth Rs 10 and demanded change. I have not seen so many Rs 1,000 notes in my counter in such a short span,” said a railway official.
Trivandrum Central exhausted the small changes for Rs 4 lakh from Tuesday’s collection by around 11 am on Wednesday. After that, the exchange was managed with the money collected at the counter. Passengers were advised to give short change or wait till the counter gets the required amount.
“We tried to contact banks for help. But they could help us only on Thursday. Had we got Rs 6 lakh, we could manage the shortage of small change,” said V C Sudeesh, Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, of Trivandrum Division.