Currency Note Press employees have no holidays and lunch breaks as note printing triples up before 31 December

To deal with the current cash crisis and an approaching deadline assured by the Prime Minister after demonetization, there has been a 3 times increase in the printing of new notes.

"We have enhanced printing of new Rs 500 notes from 3.5 million pieces per day in mid-November to 10 million pieces per day now. We are printing 19 million pieces of currency notes of various denominations on a daily average of which 10 million pieces are of Rs 500 notes, while the remaining currency notes are of Rs 100, Rs 50 and Rs 20 denominations," sources in the Currency Note Press (CNP), Nashika told TOI. The Nashik press does not print the new 2000-rupee notes.

Of the total 43 million pieces sent to the RBI on Friday, 11 million pieces were in Rs 500 denomination, 12 million in Rs 100 and 10 million each in Rs 50 and Rs 20 denominations.

Post demonetisation, in its first consignment sent to the RBI on November 11, the CNP had sent just 5 million pieces of 500-rupee notes. In the last 43 days, CNP has sent a total of 828 million pieces of various denominations to RBI's offices in various cities across the country . Of these, 250 million pieces were 500 rupee notes. In the last three days, CNP dispatched 83 million pieces of currency notes and 37.5 million pieces of these are 500-rupee notes.

The CNP is expects to print another 800 million pieces of currency notes of various denominations by January 31. The new 500-rupee notes would account for half of this number.

There are only four currency note presses in the country. Of these, two are of the RBI at Mysore in Karnataka and Salboni in Bengal while the remaining two are of the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd at Nashik and Dewas. At CNP , Sundays are no longer holidays, there's no lunch or dinner break, and a work shift stretches to 11 hours.

(Image: India times)