India's largest private sector ICICI Bank plans to set up a state-of-the-art knowledge processing hub here to cater to its customers in the eastern and northeastern regions.

"We have requested West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for 10 acres of land to accommodate the centre that will have more than 4,500 employees," ICICI Bank CEO K.V. Kamath said here Thursday.

"We want Kolkata to be the main business centre of the bank in the east and the northeast. The centre will work as the third call centre of the bank after Mumbai and Hyderabad," he said.

ICICI has launched a rural credit initiative in 75 districts to provide micro-agricultural credit facilities to farmers, and this will be extended to 600 districts across the country over the next two years, Kamath said.

"The bank will partner with consortium of financial institutions and corporate bodies to initiate the project. With this districts' initiative, the bank's agricultural credit portfolio is poised to grow by 25 percent," he said.

ICICI Bank also plans to acquire a financial institution in Russia to give a fillip to international operations, Kamath added.

-- (IANS)