Promising to speed up the process of financial inclusion, mainly in rural areas of Odisha, HDFC Bank on Saturday announced its plan to increase the number of branches from 61 to 102 in the state by the year end. "Now the bank has 61 branches in 25 districts of Odisha. The bank is going to open 11 more branches by October and would add 30 new branches by December, 2012," managing director of HDFC Bank, Aditya Puri told reporters in Bhubaneswar.

With the opening of the 102 branches the leading private sector bank would have branches in all the 30 districts of the state, he said.

HDFC Bank has 60 per cent of its branches in rural and semi-urban areas, Puri said with the opening of more branches in rural belts, more than 75 per cent of the branches of the bank would be located in villages and semi-urban pockets.

In addition to deposit mobilisation, the bank is lending to all sections of people in Odisha and the focus was now on micro-financing and loans for the farm sector like crop loans.

Apart from two wheeler loans, car loans, commercial vehicle loans and gold loans, the thrust is also on loan for tractors and agriculture implements, Puri said adding the bank is going to further enhance priority sector lending in agri-based funding.

Khurda and Bolangir districts have been selected for a novel sustainable livelihood programme which would cover around 15,000 beneficiaries by March 2013. Of the beneficiaries, 90% would be women, he said.