Public sector lender, Bank of India has decided to take banking facilities to 400 villages in Bihar as part of the financial inclusion plan of the government and Reserve Bank of India. The bank has decided to adopt the business correspondent (BC) model to carry forward this target.

Apart from this, the bank plans to raise the credit lending in the state as a step to raise the credit deposit (CD) ratio there.

With this the first phase of the plan would get fulfilled while all villages irrespective of size have to be brought under BC umbrella by 2013, informed BoI executive director N Seshadri.

"The deposits in the branches of all the banks everywhere in the state had shown sustained growth. The State Level Bankers' Committee report shows it. Our loan lending activities in agriculture are right on track. We hope to increase our bank's credit-deposit (CD) ratio in the state to 50% in the next few years," Seshadri said.

He said that the current CD ratio in the state is 32% while that of BoI in the state is 35.5%. "This financial year, we will be able to take it to 40%," Seshadri added.