Calcutta, Sept. 1: The Life Insurance Corporation of India has chalked out an aggressive expansion plan for the eastern region.

LIC’s eastern zonal manager R.R. Dash said, “The corporation will set up 45 satellite offices across Bengal, the Northeast, Sikkim and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands this year.”

The LIC will also recruit 474 development officers and 347 people in the assistant and clerical positions. “We are planning to recruit about 45,000 agents to support the aggressive business expansion plan,” Dash said here today. At present, the LIC has an agency force of 1,48,000. “We’ll raise this by 30 per cent this financial year,” he added.

The LIC’s eastern zonal office has put much emphasis on recruitment to grow business. The zonal office has set an income target of Rs 5,500 crore from new policy sales in 2008-09. It aims to sell 52.50 lakh policies in the current fiscal.

The LIC has appointed IL&FS to draw up the blueprint for its proposed 50-storey commercial complex project in the city.