Bhopal, Apr 10: ``Madhya Pradesh is very vast state and most of its population lives in rural and countryside area so we focused on the rural banking and rendered our best service for the satisfaction of our valuable customers'' said the outgoing General Manager of Union Bank of India, KR Vijayendra.

Vijayendra was addressing the press occasion of farewell party on Thursday, as he is transferred to the Central Office Mumbai. S Raman will take charge of general manager in place of Vijayendra. Vijayendra had taken the charge as UBI General Manager in April 2005.

For the development of industrialisation and corporate sector in state UBI practiced appropriate policies, and I am optimistic about its results in the state, he added.

He said, at present UBI has 199 branches in the state. During the last three years the business of the bank has been increased manifold and very soon it would cross the 10000 crore mark. All the branches are attached to each other with CBS technology and bank has 80 ATM centers of its won.

Talking about the future plan of the bank, he said, the bank is planning to open 40 new branches at district level and 50 new ATM centers in the state.