Dehradun: The country's second largest public-sector lender Punjab National Bank (PNB) would open 10 more branches in Uttarakhand by March-end, a top bank official said.

With the opening of these branches, total number of branches of the bank in the state would go up to 200, PNB Executive Director Usha Ananthasubramanian told reporters.

Of the 190 existing branches in the state, 100 are in rural areas and 47 in semi-urban areas and 43 branches are in the urban areas, she said.

As many as 193 ATMs have already been installed in the hill state, she said.

Ananthasubramanian said the bank has introduced new schemes like 'Kalyani credit card' scheme especially catering to women in rural areas. A loan of Rs 50,000 is given to women for special purposes under the scheme, she added.

The total business of the bank in the state till December crossed Rs 14,500 crore, registering a year-on-year growth of 24 per cent.

She said total business of the bank crossed Rs 6 lakh crore, which she said was a milestone recording a y-o-y growth of 21.4 per cent. Deposits at the end of December, 2011 amounted to Rs 3,56,517 crore exhibiting a growth of 24.4 percent on y-o-y basis.

On the bank's low credit deposit ratio of 52 per cent in the state, she said efforts are being made to increase it at the level of national CD ratio of 73.66 per cent.