After revocation of Article 370, J&K Bank readies to finance bigger projects

Bank CMD holds meeting with Chairman Hinduja Group

As Jammu and Kashmir received expressions of interest for investment of thousands of crores from bigger business groups amounting to over Rs 13,000 after the abrogation of Article 370, the Union Territory (UT) government-promoted J&K Bank is readying itself for financing such projects.

Post the abrogation of Article 370, not only business groups from within the country, but a number of countries including the UK, Japan, the UAE and other Middle-East nations have expressed desire to invest in the UT.

Recently Prakash P Hinduja, Chairman of Hinduja Group (Europe) – one of leading business conglomerates with a global footprint across 38 countries – had a meeting with the Chairman and Managing Director J&K Bank, R K Chhibber in New Delhi.

“The promoters of Hinduja Group expressed their interest in building a lasting relationship with J&K Bank and UT of J&K for their investment opportunities. The duo remarked that they were highly impressed with the way J&K Bank has progressed in the recent past to establish itself as one of the top banks of the country,” a senior Bank official told DH.

He said that Chhibber was informed by the Hinduja Group top brass that they were interested in forging a business relationship with the J&K Bank, which has always cherished its associations with reputed business groups.

The Bank official said that they expect more big business houses like Hinduja Group to invest in J&K and they were always ready to walk an extra mile for the overall economic prosperity of the region.

“J&K Bank has a proud legacy of over eight decades of financially empowering the people of our home territories, besides focusing on niche lending opportunities in the rest of the country. We see our role assuming further significance in the near future, as the governments of J&K and Ladakh roll out various developmental projects already in the pipeline,” he added.

According to sources, the J&K government was expecting Expression of Interest in the investments in the UT amounting to Rs 50,000 crore but might filter them and confine the proposals between Rs 10,000 crore to Rs 15,000 crore initially as it would require a lot of infrastructure development to meet requirements of the industrialists.