The havoc in Mumbai city compelled state-run, Andhra Bank to cancel its board meeting that was proposed to take place on November 27th at the Oberoi Hotel in Nariman Point. Chairman and Managing Director of the bank, RS Reddy, who was coming to Mumbai from Hyderabad, to attend the meting cancelled his plan. Four senior officers of the bank were also detained during the development but later they were released. Out of these four officials two were directors and the remaining two were general managers. Mr. Reddy sigh a "sense of relief" after confirming the safety of their officials but at the same time was also "feeling guilty" about the development. Some sources from Andhra Bank that were inside Oberoi hotel at the time of firing said that they remained inside their rooms after hearing the firing within the hotel premises. "Subsequently, we got all the updates on television. There was no communication from hotel officials or from terrorists to us. Luckily, water and power supply were not cut. Although we could not receive calls from outside, we could make calls from hotel. Finally, security guards knocked at our doors on Thursday evening and we had to climb down 25 floors through service stair case," told a bank official who was inside the hotel. However this incident did not discouraged the Reserve Bank of India's governor D Subbarao who planned to meet the CEO's of some large banks on Friday - November 28th, to discuss issues related to liquidity and SME segment. On the other hand Indian Banks' Association cancelled its management committee meeting that was programmed for Thursday evening. Some of the guests of foreign banks such as Standard Chartered, Deustche Bank, UBS, JP Morgan and Royal Bank of Scotland were staying in both Taj and Trident, the areas affected by the terrorist activity. These guests were shifted to other hotels but most of them left the country. On November 26th, some banks' branches that were open in the Nariman Point were told to stop the transactions and close the branch. Mr Reddy feels that Mumbai city has immense capacity and the terrorist activity is likely to keep the business emotions untouched. |
