KOLKATA (TIP): Srei Infrastructure Finance, engaged in infrastructure financing, is planning to start roll-out of its while label ATMs (WLAs) between July and September starting with a pilot of 200 Tier- III towns in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

The Reserve Bank of India authorisation is effective March 25, 2014. (Non-bank entities that intend setting up, owning and operating ATMs, would be christened White Label ATM Operators.) J. Moses Harding, Group CEO, Liability and Treasury Management, Srei Infrastructure Finance, said back-end and front-end connectivity was in place and now the delivery of the ATM machines had to begin.

Srei plans to launch the service in Tier-II to Tier-V towns in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal, Assam and Tamil Nadu. The RBI authorisation allows Srei to set up a minimum of 9,000 WLAs in the next three years in rural India. The sponsor bank is Axis Bank.Mr. Harding told The Hindu that the initial plan was to target the taluq headquarters where footfall was high.

“Srei will offer this service as an add-on to its current initiatives through Sahaj footprints”. Sahaj e-Village Limited is a Srei initiative with a focus on rural India. It has offices in Assam, Bihar, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal and is seen as one of the largest implementers of ICT-based projects in India, providing a distribution network for government, private and social sectors to deliver their services. He said that the WLAs would operate on a revenue-sharing model with the stakeholders, including the clearing service providers and Sahaj.