Vijaya Bank total H1 biz up

Vijayawada, Oct 23 (UNI) Vijaya Bank's total business crossed Rs 68,974 crore for six months ending September 2007 against targeted Rs 68,520 crore, Regional Manager M Sadananda Hegde said today.

Addressing the press here, Mr Hedge said as against targeted deposits of Rs 40,740 crore, the bank achieved Rs 42,168 crore in the period. However, it could achieve only Rs 26,806 crore as against Rs 27,780 crore under advances.

On the performance of the Vijayawada Region spread over ten coastal districts of the state, he said priority sector advances touched Rs 517 crore surpassing the target of Rs 510 crore.

The region earned a net profit of Rs 22.72 crore against a target of Rs 21.69 crore till the end of September 2007.

Recently the bank had been associated with APSRTC/TTD for online reservation of bus tickets for pilgrims visiting Tirumala.

The service, initially available at Hyderabad, would be soon extended to other centres.

The bank would open a branch at Amalapuram by December. It was considering opening branches in Gajuwaka in Visakhapatnam, Ibrahimpatnam near Vijayawada, S Kota and Kavali.

The Ongole Branch had been designated to deal in foreign exchange business and began full fledged operations yesterday, Mr Hedge informed.

He said the bank had financed agriculture sector to the tune of Rs 253 crore against a target of Rs 250 crore covering 39,845 farmers and fresh disbursement during this fiscal was Rs 65 crore.

The region has been awarded with merit certificate from Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister for the exemplary performance under SHGs in East Godavari District for 2006-2007.

UNI