BoM to market Hero Honda bikes to farmers

Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) has tied up with leading two-wheeler manufacturer Hero Honda to market the company's motorbikes to farmers in five select states.

The state-run bank will market the bikes in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Goa. For this, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by Bank of Maharashtra Executive Director Rajeev Madhok and Hero Honda's West Zone Manager Sanjay Mittal here on Friday, a bank release said.

Madhok said BoM, which is also the convenor for state-level bankers' committee, will provide Hero Honda's two-wheelers to the farmers holding the bank's Kisan Card.

Initially, the scheme is being launched in the five states through its 1,092 branches. The bank has decided to cover 15,000 customers in the first phase with a financial outlay of Rs 75 crore up to March 2007.

Besides, the bank has an ambitious plan to increase the outstanding level of agriculture advances by Rs 1,000 crore during 2006-07, the release said.

The bank will be disbursing Rs 2,100 crore to farmers throughout the country and has targeted to bring in about 50,000 new farmers in its fold, the release added.