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SBI turns Kolkata headoffice into archives-cum-museum

Economic Times
Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Atmadip Ray KOLKATA: Two hundred years is a fairly long slice of history and when an institution has survived that long, it is only fair that those who work for it forget for a moment that they are employees and instead pride themselves for being part of more than two centuries of India s heritage!

To make this happen, the State Bank of India has converted a section of its magnificent head office on the strand in Kolkata to a veritable archives-cum-museum with over 14,000 priceless collections that SBI employees anywhere in the city would do well to visit and see.

To spread the sense of belonging to other parts of the country as well, the SBI has identified 43 heritage branches as an extension of its Kolkata museum.

A visit to the 11th floor of Samriddhi Bhavan, the bank s headoffice on the Strand, is a very humbling experience. The rich spread consists of parchments and old documents, memorabilia and rare autographs -- items that are so rare that it will take your breath away.

Through it all is told the tale of the SBI s legacy and the country s banking history. Now when the legacy is being put up for exhibit in other heitage branches across the country as well, one expects SBI employees and customers at all these places to have the same sense of deja vu!

The initiative aims at rejuvenating SBI staffers with the sense of pride. It will also help in building confidence in SBI customers as they would get a feel of the bank s tradition, said Abhik Ray, who has just retired from SBI as the head of history cell. The project has already been executed in six of the 43 selected branches, including Allahabad, Mumbai Main Branch, Darjeeling, Salem and Madurai.

As Mr Ray, who was associated with SBI s history cell since 1975, explained, the exhibits at the heritage corners at each of these branches have three specific characters: to project the historical significance of the locality, to showcase the history of the branch and to offer a feel of the SBI s overall history. For instance, SBI s Amritsar branch will narrate the tale of Jalianabag tragedy, apart from the showcasing the history of the branch and the bank as a whole.

Significantly, it is not that the heritage branches have been chosen merely on the merit of their age. Branches in Panaji and Port Blair -- the branches are relatively new and came to existence only after 1955 but these places have historical significance -- have been picked for the heritage project.

Some of the very old SBI branches which will boast the heritage tag are Surat (1862), Bangalore (1864), Jalpaiguri (1894), Jabbalpur (1866), Amritsar (1866), Chennai Main Branch (1843), Hyderabad Main Branch (1864), Kochi (1862), Varanasi (1862), Lucknow Main Branch (1863), Pune (1862), Agra (1863) and Patna (1862).

These are all regular branches with huge customer base. Typically, some 100-200 square feet of the mail hall of each of these branches are being used for the heritage site, depending upon the availability of historical material. There are exceptions too. The heritage corner at Mumbai Main branch has nearly 400 sq ft area while that of at Darjeeling branch has just about 60 sq ft.

SBI has engaged interior decorators to carefully build these site. Besides planning to exhibit materials from the main archives at Kolkata Archives, SBI officials are collecting memorabilia and documents from local sources too.

According to SBI circles, these new brand of branches will be ready with their heritage collections latest by 2010.

Sources :: State Bank of India