Ranchi: The Canara Bank on Thursday announced the opening of Any Where Banking (AWB) scheme in the capital. Through the scheme, a person would be able to access his account anywhere in the country. This is for the first time that such a facility has been introduced in Jharkhand. An ATM machine was also inaugurated on this occasion.

More than 564 branches across 30 cities will be connected to each other under the Any Where Banking scheme. Identity cards would also be given to customers to access the accounts.

Several other schemes like the Internet-banking and mobile-banking are also in the pipeline. Through the Internet-banking system, a customer can keep track of his account through the computer.

Deputy general manager A.K. Gupta and the additional general manager of the Canara Bank T. Adhikary were also present on the occasion.

“The Any Where Banking scheme will connect different branches across the cities. The bank has opened its first ATM in the capital and also taken the initiative to open 15 more in the comings days,” said A.K. Gupta.

“Any Where Banking is a new concept and the bank has further plans to start it in Jamshedpur and Bokaro. All the major cities of the state will be connected via the computer to the AWB for the convenience of the customers,” he said.

For the development of the small-scale Industries, the bank is also planning to open special SSI branches in Adityapur and Jamshedpur within 15 days. These branches would only cater to loans for individuals and not to any business houses.

The bank also plans to open 15 more branches under the next financial year.

There are about 41 rural branches of the Canara Bank in the state. The bank has plans to increase the number of branches in the rural areas of both Jharkhand and Bihar.