"We are taking steps to thwart theft of ATMs. We have finalised a vendor (for laucnhing) e-surveillance system which will help in stopping such attempts in future," PNB General Manager (Punjab) Harpal Singh told PTI today.
Under this new system, sensors will be installed at all the ATMs, including onsite and offsite.
"Whenever an attempt for burglary is made, the sensor will trigger an alert which will be forwarded to our centralised control room which will be set up in Delhi. Thereafter, response team will be activated for necessary action," he explained, adding that it might be rolled out nationwide within a month.
However, he said so far this technology may have not been introduced by any bank in the country. "We have not seen it (e-surveillance) in other banks. It is not in our knowledge," he said.
In second such attempt within a week, unidentified miscreants looted Rs 18 lakh from two unguarded PNB ATMs at Dadwindi village and Talwandi Chaudhriya village in Kapurthala district in Punjab on Sunday.
On the night of December 17, burglars had struck two ATMs in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab and decamped with cash to the tune of over Rs 23 lakh.
"Complaints have been lodged with the police and CCTV footages have been provided to them," Singh said.
PNB has over 500 ATMs in Punjab. PNB GM said it has deployed guards at offsite ATMs but there are no guards at onsite cash dispensing machines.
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