July brings a series of bank holidays across India, with closure dates varying by state depending on regional festivals and other occasions. If you are planning to visit a bank branch on Thursday, July 16, it is worth checking the bank holiday calendar first. Banks will remain closed in several parts of the country to mark Ratha Yatra/Kang (Rathajatra) and the Harela festival.As per the Reserve Bank of India’s holiday calendar, bank branches will remain shut in Odisha, Uttarakhand and Manipur. Banking operations will continue normally in most other parts of the country.Ratha Yatra or the chariot festival, is one of the major festivals, celebrated with deities being taken through the streets on large wooden chariots. The festival is most prominently observed in Puri, Odisha, where millions of devotees participate in pulling the chariots of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra.Harela, meanwhile, is an agricultural and environmental festival celebrated mainly in Uttarakhand’s Kumaon region and parts of Himachal Pradesh. It marks the onset of the monsoon and the beginning of the sowing season.

Which operations will be affected

While physical branches are closed in the notified states, customers can continue carrying out routine banking through internet banking and mobile banking applications offered by SBI, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda and several other lenders.Only branch-based services are unavailable during the holiday. These include cheque clearance, over-the-counter cash deposits, issuance of demand drafts, locker-related work and document verification. Such services will resume on the next working day.

Upcoming holidays in July

The RBI calendar also shows more state-wise bank holidays later this month. Bank branches in Meghalaya will remain closed on July 17 to observe the Death Anniversary of U Tirot Sing. Sikkim will observe a bank holiday on July 18 for Drukpa Tshe-zi, while Tripura will have a bank holiday on July 22 for Kharchi Puja.Besides these regional holidays, banks across India will remain closed on the monthly weekly offs falling on July 5, 12, 19 and 26, which are Sundays, and on July 11 and July 25, the second and fourth Saturdays of the month.