Devotees visiting the Srirangam Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple will soon be able to make their donations by swiping their debit or credit cards.

The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment Department, in co-ordination with State Bank of India, is all set to open a ‘e-hundi’ at the Garuda Mandapam to facilitate devotees offer their donation to the temple in a hassle-free and technology-driven manner. The facility will start functioning in a week, temple officials said.

The Srirangam temple is said to be the first in the State to get the e-hundi. The temple nets Rs. 50 lakh a month through hundi collections on an average and ranks among the top 10 temples in the State in terms of hundi collections. Although meant primarily for donations made through cards, the e-hundi would serve as a cash deposit machine and devotees can make cash deposits. “Once you swipe your card or deposit cash, it will be immediately credited to the temple accounts being maintained with the State Bank of India,” an official said. Explaining the advantages of the “e-hundi”, an official of HR and CE Department said that every donor would be issued a printed receipt after the donation was made. The banks would be able to update temple accounts daily. The “e-hundi” would reduce the burden of counting of currency notes collected from the conventional ‘hundi’.

This assumes significance in the wake of the Centre’s demonetisation move. However, officials said the e-hundi proposal was made much before the demonetisation move.

Officials said the e-hundi proposal was made much before the Centre’s demonetisation move.