Syndicate Bank is planning to open a mega locker plaza at its Shalibanda branch in the city. The bank, which already has 900 lockers at the branch, plans to add a 1,000 more. It may increase this number further in future.

"We have enough space at the branch premises. We were encouraged to increase the number of lockers by good response from the Muslim community, who receive substantial income from their relatives in the Gulf," B R Pai, zonal manager of Syndicate Bank, said.

Realising that locker rentals is a good source for fee-based income, the bank now plans to increase the number of lockers in all its 306 branches. Rentals for the lockers vary from Rs 450-Rs 1200, depending on the size of the locker.

"Over the next two years, we plan to add another 40 branches in the state -- a majority of them in the coastal areas of Krishna, east Godavari, west Godavari, and Visakhapatnam districts," Pai said.

Syndicate Bank has the third largest branch network in the state, after Andhra Bank and State Bank of Hyderabad. It has a deposit base of Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) and an advances portfolio of Rs 1,900 crore (Rs 19 billion).

The bank plans to achieve 40 per cent growth in total business during the current fiscal.

So far, Syndicate Bank has computerised over 80 per cent of its branches in the state, out of which it has already networked branches in six centres, including Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Guntur and Tirupati.

It plans to network branches in 14 other important centres in the state to offer facilities such as 'Anywhere banking' and ATMs.

Syndicate Bank is now in the process of implementing its centralised banking solution in 25 branches, including seven administrative offices.