The State Bank of India and its seven associate banks, have awarded a $ 29 million contract to Datacraft to implement the second phase of its nation-wide corporate network, Datacraft announced on Wednesday.

"The project is critical to SBI and its associate banks for implementing an ambitious technology plan and this will be the largest banking network in India," a Datacraft release said.

"Once completed, the corporate network will transform SBI's technology infrastructure and integrate its entire banking system for efficient growth, greater productivity and improved service levels," it said.

The first phase of the project, which was also implemented by Datacraft India, commenced in June 2002.

In this phase, Datacraft was commissioned for the design, supply and building of a nation-wide IP backbone, the provision of connectivity to 1447 SBI branches in 49 cities in India, project management, connectivity to centralised data centre at Mumbai and a backup data centre at Chennai, the integration of 2850 IP phones; and connectivity to over 700 ATM machines.