Bhubaneswar, July 1: The National Housing Bank opened its regional branch here today to facilitate institutional lending in the housing sector and better co-ordination of housing finance activities in the state.

The bank’s presence will help more people in the organised and unorganised sectors to avail housing loans. With the opening of the 10th regional branch, Bhubaneswar joins the list of cities such as Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Bhopal, Lucknow and Patna, which have regional National Housing Bank (NHB) offices. The NHB is a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and will function from the third floor of the RBI building on Sachivalaya Marg in Bhubaneswar.

R.V. Verma, chairman and managing director of NHB, said: “The regional office will facilitate a platform to have interstake holders’ dialogues by revamping the credit delivery system through various public sector banks and the housing finance companies.”

Last year, the national lending volume by banks and housing finance companies was around Rs 7 lakh crore but Odisha’s share was a meagre Rs 5,000 crore, or below one per cent of the national volume. “With establishment of the regional office of the NHB, we hope the lending share of housing credit will rise in the state,’’ Verma said.

Inaugurating the bank’s 10th regional branch, RBI deputy governor Harun R. Khan said: “The NHB will help in fulfilling the common goal of housing for all.”