The government’s support motivated the State Bank of India (SBI) to set an example that challenges cannot get in the way of their commitment to provide uninterrupted services, says the bank’s Malé branch CEO, Bharat Mishra.
In an interview with RaajjeMV following the fire that raged through the building where five floors housing SBI’s offices were located, on Friday, Mishra expressed gratitude to the government officials and ministers, who were regularly in touch following the destructive fire.
Their support motivated us, without that when they are supporting us so much why should we not set an example that this accident cannot stop us from providing uninterrupted service. Our team was actually very motivated to prove it that intension of providing uninterrupted service. So everything happened next day, now we are working on restoring our internal furniture, till now we have not been handed over the projection of the building. We are waiting for the moment when we will be allowed to enter, we are in touch with the landlord, the moment we are allowed to restart work we will commence. It may take about one-month time to restore. Some floors can be readied at an early date where damage is less.”Bharat Mishra, CEO
While SBI resumed services to customer on Sunday, Mishra noted that it was a challenge they had accepted to open doors for services, in less than 24 hours.
The bank’s CEO noted that they had “never imagined” the damage would be of such “high intensity”, noting that there was no evidence of fire in the ground floors, which was flooded. According to Mishra, the second and third floors incurred the most damage, by 80 percent. The fourth floor was damaged about 25 – 35 percent and the eighth, only about 20 percent where only one cabin was entirely burned.
We were little bit disappointed we never though despite so much efforts and everything our system will be so damaged, we came to know that we are going to have a tough time servicing our customers, then we had an emergency meeting with our local and India-based officers. We had to arrange shift entire thing in Hulhumalé branch, the smaller branch, so fortunately we had some PCs, which were meant to be sent to Maamigili and Addu branch. Fortunately, those were with us and they were not burnt, they were kept in a different area, that area remained intact. We immediately provided 15 notes in this branch and then we arranged connectivity from India that Dhiraagu, Ooredoo was involved and Sunday being Dhiragu has outsourced connectivity from Sri Lankan office, which had a relation with UK office, entire thing we managed, we gave our guarantee that you don’t wait for Monday, give us the connectivity today and by 10pm, we were so delighted that now connectivity has reached Hulhumalé, we were so excited.”Bharat Mishra, CEO
Highlighting that the team was up through a large portion of the night to ensure services may be resumed in the morning, Mishra noted that “we were sure that we will provide service next morning without missing a single hour of service time to our customers.” The company’s HR team managed everything overnight and the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) played a major role in assisting the staff continue services without disruption, he added.
While the bank was sure they could only start account opening services after about a week, the hectic team had resumed the service within two hours of opening, said a proud CEO.
In regards to the cost of damage incurred in Friday’s fire, Mishra noted that they are yet to access the damage as they have not been allowed entry into the building.
Stressing that they will only be able to start little by little and that they expect to open up the ground floor as well as the fourth and eighth floors first, Mishra noted that it may be a while before they can open up the second and third floors for services, due to the extent of damage.
Mishra added that their current focus is to provide uninterrupted services for customers and that they will manage in small spaces, in the face of such a crisis.
Have faith in us, we are doing our level best we are leaving no stone unturned to see that customers are served with minimum disruption, even today we had a meeting to determine what is lacking in the service and searching in ways to improve, there may be some gaps.”Bharat Mishra, CEO
SBI building caught fire on Friday night after a fire that broke out in Café Tiolo spread to the top floors of the building. No injuries were reported during Friday night’s fire, and the cause of the fire is yet to be determined as well.
