Tarak Luhar, visually impaired since birth, was the first to withdraw money from the country’s first ‘Talking ATM’ installed by the Union Bank of India on Wednesday at the Blind People’s Association (BPA) premise in Vastrapur. The machine did the talking through the head phones and he would just run his fingers on the Braille keypad on the machine.

Bank chairman and managing director D Sarkar inaugurated the disabled-friendly machine with a view to assist the visually and physically challenged.

Sarkar said that this machine could also also be operated “by a person in a wheelchair — it is totally accessible. They can go into the ATM on a wheelchair and operate it independently”. “We are dedicating our first accessible ATM today in Gujarat as a token our gratitude for Bapuji, who laid the foundation stone of the Bank way back in 1921,” he added.

The ATM operates in English and Hindi only and it will take some time to include at least 12 more Indian languages, according to an official from the NCR Corporation, which manufactured the machine.

BPA executive director Dr Bhushan Punani explained that the machine’s voice interface could be used via head phones. “Once this is done, the machine guides the blind user into the operations”, he said.

A blind inmate of BPA, Ranchhod Soni said the machine was a blessing for people like him as it was in braille and would speak details like the amount, because of which there would be no chance of any mistake by the card holder or mischief by anyone entering the booth.