Vijaya Bank is planning to establish 50 more branches in Andhra Pradesh in the next two years in addition to the existing 115 branches, according to Executive Director B.S Rama Rao. Fifteen of the branches would be set up during the current financial year.

He was speaking to the media here on Monday after inaugurating a branch at Narsipatnam in Visakhapatnam district, taking the total number of branches in the country to 2033. "Our business volume stood at Rs 2,30,184 crores as on March 31 this year, with Rs 1,32,983 crores being deposits and the rest advances. We are making earnest efforts to touch the Rs 3,00,000 crore mark as the next milestone," he said.

Rama Rao said the non-performing assets (NPA) figure of the bank was the lowest among public sector banks, with gross NPA being 6.59 per cent and and net NPA 4.36 per cent. The bank posted net profit of Rs 750.48 crores as on March 31.

He said the corporate credit off-take was not all that encouraging in recent times due to a sluggish economy, and "therefore we are focusing on the retail segment." The bank has lent Rs 500 crores to the Visakhapatnam steel plant - Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited.

He said the bank was adopting girl children from economically weaker sections and it had also set up a rural health centre for the poor at Burugupudi village in East Godavari district. As a part of CSR activity, the bank is earmarking 0.50 paise for social service on every ATM transaction.

The total business volume in Andhra Pradesh stood at Rs 11,000 crores, he added.

P. Srinivasa Reddy, the Regional Manager, Visakhapatnam, also spoke.

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