Thieves stall SBI branch operations 7 times in two months

MUMBAI: In a unique incident, operations of a branch of the country's largest lender, State Bank of India, was virtually stalled by thieves seven times in the last two months.

The Dombivli branch of the bank, with annual business of Rs 500 crore, had to suspend its operations every time thieves steal cables through which the branch is connected to a server located at Belapur in Navi Mumbai.

The bank has installed core banking solution (CBS) through Intranet facility provided by BSNL.

"The telephone cables go alongside the nearby road. However, with the road currently being concretised, all the cables have come out in open and have become easy picking for thieves. Thieves reportedly sell the copper inside the cable to the scrap dealers," a bank official said.

It takes one day for BSNL to put up new wires and the bank just cannot function till then, the official added.

The road concretising work has been going on in the entire MIDC area which houses about 450 small and big industries.

But the theft results in total stoppage of work in SBI since its entire computer network depends on the leased wires. Bank officials said they are now planning to install V-SAT network to ensure the connectivity is not affected even when there is a theft of telephone cables.

The bank has lodged a police complaint.