Banks will remain closed for four days in a row in several parts of the country this week because of Holi and weekends.
Banks in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand will remain closed in the account of Holi on March 17. Banks will be closed in Ahmedabad, Aizawl, Belapur, Bhopal, Chandigarh and several other cities on March 18 according to the guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Banks also remain shut on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month and on all Sundays of the month. In February, banks in the country were shut for 12 days.
Bank holidays are listed under three categories: Holiday Under Negotiable Instruments Act, Holiday Under Negotiable Instruments Act and Real Time Gross Settlement Holiday, and Banks’ Closing of Accounts. However, these holidays differ from state to state.
List of bank holidays in the third week of March:
| March 17 (Holika Dahan) | Banks will remain closed in Dehradun, Kanpur, Lucknow and Ranchi. |
| March 18 (Holi/Holi second day/Dhuleti/Doljatra) | Banks will remain closed in Ahmedabad, Aizawl, Belapur, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Gangtok, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jammu, Kanpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Panaji, Patna, Raipur, Ranchi, Shillong, Shimla and Srinagar. |
| March 19 (Holi/Yaosang second day) | Banks will remain closed in Bhubaneswar, Imphal and Patna. |
| March 20 | Sunday |
Apart from this week, banks in Patna will stay shut on March 22 on the account of Bihar Diwas, whereas banks across the country will be shut on March 26 (fourth Saturday) and March 27 (Sunday).