State-run, Punjab National Bank has introduced mobile banking service for the residents of Daringibadi, a tribal area in Kandhamal district of Orissa.

With the launch of this pilot project, the bank intends to reach out to people who reside in backward areas and have not been facilitated with banking services. PNB will cover such population in the fold by opening no-frills account in the name of the customer.

Chairman and Managing Director of PNB, K.C. Chakrabarty said, "It is a technology based financial inclusion (FI) project and aims to cover vast number of un-banked rural people." The bank has selected Kandhamal district for the launch of this project because there is a huge tribal population in the area not yet covered by banking services. The tribes in this district are ignorant of the advantages of banking, added the Chairman. The district has a population of around 6.5 lakh and only 80,000 are using banking services.

Head of PNB in the Orissa circle, BP Sharma said, "Initially the project will cover Dringibadi area, the biggest block of the state and gradually it will be extended to other parts of the district." The bank plans to broaden its reach in other remote areas like Gajapati, he added.

The bank has also initiated its 62nd branch at Daringibadi along with the introduction of a bio-metric ATM. The biometric card establishes the identity of a rural depositor who is barely literate and thereby allows him to be a part of the banking community. "The system is very cost effective and requires less manpower. It also helps in providing banking service at the doorstep of the people in far flung areas without opening new branches", said Mr. Chakrabarty.

This project is a part of financial inclusion programme and is the eleventh initiative of its kind by PNB. Under this initiative the bank aims to cover 30,000 villages, 15 million households and 75 million people by 2010.

Earlier PNB had started such projects in different states including Neemrana in Rajasthan, Patna and Gaya in Bihar, Sharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Chandigarh, Ranchi in Jharkhand, Dehradun in Uttarakhand, Taran Trana in Punjab and Kullu and Mandi in Himanchal Pradesh.