Canara bank will open 100 branches in the country and 5 overseas during the current fiscal year and is targeting to grow by over 20 per cent in 2008-09.

The bank aims to achieve a business of Rs 3,10,000 crore by 2008-09 against the total business of Rs 2,61,000 crore in 2007-08.

"We will open 100 new branches this year including 28 branches in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, during this year," said A C Mahajan, Chairman and Managing Director, Canara Bank.

The Chairman reported that last year bank's business of about Rs 50,000 was largest from Delhi followed by Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai.

The bank has 2,694 branches in the country at present. The bank, which is in China and London, has also decided to open one office each in Bahrain, Muscat, Oman, Qatar and Johannesburg during this fiscal. "We are waiting for approval of the local operators for overseas expansion," added Mahajan.

Mahajan said power, ports, hotels and roads were the main areas where banking showed maximum growth. This was noted regardless of the slowdown in the economy.

"We are expecting growth from power and infrastructure sectors," he said.

According to Mahajan, gross non-performing assets (NPAs) and net NPAs of the bank are 1.37 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively.

The bank has more than 2,000 ATMs in over 60 per cent of branches in rural and semi-urban areas. In Karnataka the bank has installed nine bio-metric voice-enabled ATMs. Depending on their success, they will be extended to other states as well.

On a recent loan distribution event held at Chandigarh, Mahajan stated that the bank has decided to open 50 no-frills accounts per branch for financial inclusion in the Union Territory of Chandigarh to help about 10,000 families living below the poverty line.