Cheque clearing sees 40% drop in Ahmedabad

With the Bharat Bandh, the banks in the city witnessed sharp drop in customers. Around 40% drop was registered in daily routine instrument (cheque) clearing compared to normal days.

The clearing centre of Ahmedabad is managed by Bank of Baroda.

"Daily we clear up to 14,000 instruments but on Monday it was less than 8,000. We saw a fall of up to 40% in total number of instruments being cleared due to the bandh," said an official of the bank.

The official further said though several banks were closed, those that remained open also saw few customers. 

"Few branches and ATM centres shut shop later in the day but since morning, the flow of customers was also less," he said.  "By afternoon, many branches of private as public sector banks were asked to down their shutters.

The ATM centres were ready with cash but to avoid any untoward incident, the centres were also closed down," said an official of HDFC Bank.