Public sector Bank of Baroda (BoB) plans to open 900 branches across the country by the end of fiscal 2011-12 and will come up with nine overseas in the next six months.

“Of the domestic branches, 400 will be opened before March 31, 2011 and the remaining 500 in 2011-12,” BoB Chairman and Managing Director M D Mallya said.

With this, the total number of branches will go up to 4,000 with a footprint in all the states and Union Territories of the country, he told a news agency at a credit camp in Padra town, about 20km from Vadodara.

A sum of Rs 30 crore was disbursed amongst more than 789 beneficiaries of various schemes at the credit camp, Mallya said.

At present, BoB, with more than 3,101 domestic branches (713 in Gujarat) and 81 overseas offices/branches, is a great force to reckon with in the banking industry, he said.

The government lender is also planning to open nine branches abroad in the next six months, the CMD said, adding these will come up in Kenya, Botswana, Uganda and UAE.

All the BoB branches abroad are operating on a common technology along with human touch, making the lender a very different entity from other banks, he stated.

To manage its expanding operations, the bank is mulling