Imagine being able to withdraw cash at any of the 10,000-odd ATMs scattered across the country.

This ultimate "anytime, anywhere banking" experience may soon become a reality with the Reserve Bank of India-promoted Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology planning to set up a national ATM switch to hook up ATM networks of all banks across India.

The Hyderabad-based institute, which was established by the RBI in 1996, expects to get the nodal switch going in six months.

Once all the banks in India hook their ATM switches to the institute, ATM networks across the country will be able to "talk to each other", enabling card holders to bank seamlessly at any of the 10,000 ATMs in the country.

At a meeting held in Bangalore a few months ago, the information technology chiefs of various banks had approved the idea of establishing ATM interconnectivity through a national switch.

The switch will be part of the Indian Financial Network (Infinet), a closed-user group communication backbone for the banking and financial sector.

Infinet, which is a blend of very small aperture terminal and leased line technology, hosts critical intra-bank and inter-bank applications and is operated and managed by IDRBT.

The cost of transactions routed through the switch would be very low, under Rs 10 each, due to the high volumes of transactions -- almost 100,000 per day -- expected across the network, bankers said.

With the Indian Banks' Association-promoted Swadhan Shared Payment Network Services expected to wind up operations by December 2003, banks are forming their own ATM network-sharing alliances.

Four such alliances have already emerged. Five public sector banks -- Bank of India , Union Bank of India, Indian Bank, United Bank of India and Syndicate Bank -- have formed a grand ATM network-sharing alliance called CashTree.

Citibank, the Industrial Development Bank of India, Standard Chartered Bank and UTI Bank have come together to form an alliance called Cashnet. Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank are also in the process firming up such alliances.