ICICI Bank launched ‘Branch on Wheels’ in Chhattisgarh, as part of its financial inclusion plan that aims at providing banking services in villages which are so far devoid of banking facilities. The ‘Branch on Wheels’ is a first of its kind initiative by any private sector bank in India. It was inaugurated at Raipur by chief minister of Chattisgarh Raman Singh and ICICI Bank ED Rajiv Sabharwal. The ‘Branch on Wheels’ is a mobile branch with an ATM. It offers a wide range of banking products and services such as savings accounts, loans, cash deposit/withdrawal, account balance enquiries, statement printing and funds transfer/DD/PO collections, among others. The facility will be operated on a van. It will be stationed at specific timings of the day in pre-identified, unbanked villages at specified locations. It is equipped with a GPS tracking system, laptops with 3G connections, LED TV, a safe, a printer, public announcement system, an UV Lamp that detects forged cheques, a note counting-cum-authentication machine that identifies fake currency notes and a unique low weight ATM. The nearest branch of the Bank will act as the parent branch of the ‘Branch on Wheels’, routing all the cash and transactions for it.
