Himachal cooperative bank to open more branches

The Himachal Pradesh State Cooperative Bank will open four more branches and nine extension counters this fiscal, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said Monday.

Presiding over a meeting of the board of directors here, he stressed the need for opening more branches in far flung areas to benefit people living in rural areas.

He congratulated the bank, which has 184 branches, for recovering non-performing assets (NPA) amounting to Rs.21 crore in the past two months.

The chief minister asked the bank to provide doorstep services through business correspondents, mobile vans and branch networks.

Bank chairman Harsh Mahajan told IANS that the bank would install 100 ATMs by the end of this fiscal.

He said the bank is planning to open new branches at 12 places for which permission had been obtained from the Reserve Bank of India.

Managing Director Amitabh Awasthi said the bank has started financing mini hydropower projects to promote power production.

In the quarter ending Sep 30, the operational profit of the bank was Rs.107.19 crore and authorized capital Rs.10 crore.