Banking facility at every 5 km radius in three years in Guj: ET

Banking facility at every 5 km radius in three years in Guj: ET


People of Gujarat would have access to the banking facilities at every 15 km radius area by March 2010 and that
distance will be brought down to five km in next three years.

At present, there are only 405 villages in 28 blocks in 14 districts which are without bank branch in the radius 15 kms,
which is termed as under banked areas.

"The State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) in consultation with Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space application and
Geo informatics (BISAG) has undertaken the exercise of mapping of block wise bank branches in the state," said
Mukesh Kumar Jain, General Manager of Dena Bank Gujarat which is convenor for SLBC in the state.

According to Jain, in the last meeting of SLBC, it has been decided to provide banking facility either through fell-
fledged branch, satellite branch or business correspondent model.

"Once we achieve the target of providing bank facility at 15 kms radius, we will further bring down the distance from
15 kms to 5 kms in next three years," he said.

As per the figures provided by SLBC, in Gujarat, there are total 5881 bank branches in the state as on September 2009
and 376 applications were pending before the Reserve Bank of India for opening of new branches.