The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to build an Automated Banknote Processing Centre (ABPC) in Jaipur to dispatch and store, and for receipt of currency notes.
According to RBI’s Request for Proposal (RFP) for engagement of consultant for comprehensive consultancy services for establishment of ABPC, Jaipur issued by the central bank, ABPC will process banknotes that would be received from currency chests (CCs) and bank branches. It will also destruct soiled banknotes in an automated manner.
“Cash remains an important mode of payment for most Indian citizens, notwithstanding the growth in digital payments. In fact, the banknotes in circulation have been concurrently growing with the rise in digital payments. The global trend of the increasing volume of banknotes in circulation has been witnessed in India as well,” said the document.
The official paper also highlighted that the volume of banknotes in circulation has increased three-fold from March 2001 to March 2019, and is expected to rise further in the years to come. Besides, the supply of banknotes by the presses has increased about four times during the same tenure, and is expected to increase manifolds.
“This has necessitated a relook at the present system of cash management and a need is felt to automate the handling of banknotes for receipt, storage, retrieval, processing and destruction, in line with the global changes, adopting modern technology,” mentioned the document.
One of the activities at the proposed ABPC would be automated receipt and storage of fresh banknotes received from the printing presses, automated retrieval and dispatch of fresh banknotes to the identified issue offices (IOs)/CCs.
Further, it is expected that the proposed ABPC will provide for storage and dispatch of fresh banknotes and storage and processing of soiled banknotes to/from the identified CCs/bank branches covering the jurisdiction of the states being catered. It will work in two shifts and serve the currency requirements of the identified regions.
The document also shows storage capacity requirements for the ABPC in the pink city. It includes a daily average fresh note stock at 1,883 million pieces during 2024-25, 2,950 million pieces during 2029-30 and 6,853 million pieces during 2039-40, and soiled notes at 7,718 million pieces during 2024-25, 11,568 million pieces during 2029-30 and 27,757 million pieces during 2039-40.
“The facility may be designed to store the daily average fresh note stock requirement and hold a stock of about 15 days of soiled banknotes and provide commensurate processing and destruction capacities,” said the document.
