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Union finance minister P Chidambaram today made a record of sorts by inaugurating 300 bank branches in Uttar Pradesh.
This is the largest number of bank branches launched in a single day in India, a feat, which Chidambaram termed as a “triple century in a Cricket match.”
The branches belong to 30 banks and are spread over 75 districts in UP, mainly in the rural areas.
The roadmap to open another 2,700 bank branches in UP by March 2014 is ready to decreasing the per capita banks to population ratio from 16,000 to the national average of 13,000.
While, 300 new branches have been opened, 450 would be opened in June, followed by 600 in September, 750 in December and 900 in March 2014.
All the existing and new branches would be equipped with an ATM outlet by the end of next fiscal. UP has a network of over 13,000 branches of different banks.
Speaking on the occasion, Chidambaram called upon banks to reach out to the un-served regions more aggressively for financial inclusion.
He noted if the banks could achieve the target of opening a total of 3,000 bank branches in UP by March 2014, then they could also open 12,000 branches in other places of the country.
“In the last couple of years, banks have been opening 6,000 branches every year across India, which is about 18 branches a day,” he informed while underlining the rising demand and consciousness towards banks amongst the people.
The minister said banks were important for financial inclusion, increasing credit deposit ratio, deposit mobilisation and credit growth.
“The banks have done remarkably well. Today, we have over one lakh bank branches in the country and about 1.06 lakh ATMs,” he said.
The Akhilesh Yadav government had been pushing for opening more bank branches in UP to bring the state at par the national average.
