Insurance claims begin pouring in from cyclone-hit Andhra and Odisha

Mumbai: Claims have started pouring in from Cyclone Hudhud-hit areas of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha and insurers are gearing up to settle them. “Claims have already started pouring in from the cyclone-hit areas in the two states and we will immediately make interim payment against those claims. For the Jammu & Kashmir floods, we have already settled 40 percent claims and we are hopeful of settling the remaining by the fiscal end,” New India Assurance chairman and managing director G Srinivasan told PTI. The rate of insurance or even reinsurance might go up due to the two recent calamities. However, insurers are currently busy collecting the data to arrive at a conclusion. “There is no immediate impact on the rates as we anticipate one or two incidents every year. Last year we had the Uttarakhand floods. After all, we will have to wait to see the impact in Vizag area. As of now we don’t have full idea. Based on the full information of loss we receive from the Hudhud-hit areas, the market would react accordingly,” said Srinivasan, who is also the chairman of General Insurers (PSU) Association (GIPSA). Reinsurance rates are soft and generally reinsurers will not be happy to see major losses due to these natural incidents, he added. Still, we will have to wait until February-March when the reinsurance premiums will come up for renewal, Srinivasan said. Meanwhile, insurers are taking various steps to help the victims of cyclone Hudhud in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. [caption id=“attachment_1758181” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Army personnel carry out rescue works at a flooded village in Hudhud cyclone hit Vizag district. PTI[/caption] Private sector non-life insurer ICICI Lombard, which offers motor, home, health and other insurance products to its customers in the state, has taken a host of such initiatives. They include outbound communication to customers to check safety and provide immediate assistance, dedicated hotline number to intimate claims and for query resolution and special teams to expedite claims. “It is our sincere endeavour to provide maximum support to our customers in this hour of need. We are proactively attempting to contact our customers in the worst-affected areas to assist them,” ICICI Lombard General Insurance chief, underwriting and claims, Sanjay Datta said. We are also installing a hotline facility on our helpline number and will ensure speedy claim settlement to help our customers in Andhra and Odisha, he added. The company will station additional manpower including surveyors for quick assessment and claim intimation across all types of claims. The central team has also been geared up to expedite claim processing and approvals. Meanwhile, the insurers will be filing the second compliance report before J&K High Court on October 27. They already submitted the first compliance report on October 14. “We will be filing our second compliance report before J&K High Court on 27 October,” Srinivasan said. In the first compliance report, we have said that we have already paid Rs 127 crore out of 3,000 claims that we had received from J&K as on October 13, a GIPSA official said. A Bajaj Allianz General Insurance official said, “We are expecting claims to come from sectors like motor and property from Hudhud-hit areas and we have already deployed 150 surveyors in the affected areas for the purpose.” PTI