Jangipur (West Bengal), July 12 (IANS) Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Sunday inaugurated 154 branches and 2,151 automated teller machines (ATMs) of the country’s largest lender, the State Bank of India, online here.
This is the largest number of branches opened by the bank on a single day. The number of its branches across the country has now increased to 11,853 and its ATMs to 13,983.

Mukherjee said Jangipur, about 260 km north of Kolkata, was chosen as it was both a backward area with the minorities accounting for 67 percent of its population.

“As per the Rajinder Sachar Committee recommendation, we are trying to increase bank penetration in minority-dominated zones of the country,” the finance minister said, adding: “We chose Jangipur for such a mega event as it fulfilled both the criteria.”

Jangipur is Mukherjee’s Lok Sabha constituency.

State Bank chairman O.P. Bhatt, who was present at the function, said: “We had introduced banking in 53,000 unbanked villages across the country last year. This year, the target is 50,000.”

Bank officials said around 1,000 branches and 10,000 ATMs would be opened in 2009-10, the bulk of them in urban and semi-rural areas.