Railways mulling insurance for baggage, laptops and even mobiles

With 40 lakh people opting for passenger insurance since its launch early this month, Railways is now planning to roll out insurance for baggage, mobiles and laptops in the insurance cover.   

NEW DELHI: With 40 lakh people opting for passenger insurance since its launch early this month, Railways is now planning to roll out insurance for baggage, mobiles and laptops in the insurance cover.   

There are also plans to expand the existing passenger insurance to include station and ticketing areas so that passengers get the cover in case of any untoward incident on station premises.  

“As of now the insurance covers passenger from boarding to alighting from train. We are planning to extend it on station and ticketing areas also. There is potential to extend it to baggage and other valuables like mobile and laptop,” said IRCTC Chairman and Managing Director A K Manocha.

According to IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation), there is immense potential to expand the insurance cover and this would bring down the premium amount. IRCTC along with three private companies provide the insurance cover.

Manocha said the response to passenger insurance was massive and plans of extending the insurance cover had to be worked out. The organisation is also planning to extend the service to unreserved passengers.  It is also modifiying the ticket-booking website so that medical insurance automatically gets added to the ticket. The passenger has to opt out if the person is not interested in getting the cover. Presently, the insurance option has to be ticked while booking the ticket. 

Since September 1, passengers booking tickets online have an option to get an insurance cover of up to `10 lakh by paying a premium of 92 paise. Insurance can be claimed if any untoward incidents, including terrorist attack, dacoity, rioting, shootout or arson, occurs. The scheme is a great success  and on Tuesday, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu tweeted,  “Number of people opting for new insurance scheme crossed 4 million mark. Scheme a great success and it is one among many passenger friendly initiatives.”

The scheme offers travellers/nominees/legal heirs a compensation of  `10 lakh in the event of death or total disabilty, `7.5 lakh for partial disability, up to `2 lakh for hospital expenses and `10,000 for transporting mortal remains from the place of a train accident.

Three companies — ICICI Lombard General Insurance, Royal Sundaram General Insurance and Shriram General Insurance provide the insurance. They have been engaged for one year with the provision of extending the contract on the basis of performance basis.

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