Insurance companies collected Rs 46 crores premium from Railway passengers, paid Rs 7 crores in claims
Sumit Singh
Pune, July 22, 2019 : An RTI query has found that three private insurance companies got Rs 46 crores in premium from passengers of Indian Railways, while they paid Rs seven crores in claims to passengers, in the last two years.
Officials said that the train accidents have reduced, hence the less payment in claims. Also the collection of premium is more as number of passengers has increased. The RTI Act application was filed by social activist Chandrashekhar Gaur of Madhya Pradesh.
According to railway officials, Optional Travel Insurance Scheme was launched w.e.f 01.09.2016 for the Confirmed/RAC Railway passengers who book e-ticket through official website of Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) portal at the premium of Rs. 0.92 per passenger.
Subsequently, to promote digital/cashless transaction, insurance was provided free of cost from 10.12.2016 to all the Confirmed/RAC Railway passengers buying online ticket from IRCTC and no premium is being charged from the passengers. The premium w.e.f 01-Oct-2018 is Re. 49 paise per passenger inclusive of all taxes.
IRCTC which is a wholly owned undertaking of Ministry of Railways has entered into an agreement with three Insurance Companies through Limited Tender, namely (i) Shriram General Insurance Company Ltd., (ii) ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd., & (iii) Royal Sundaram General Insurance Co. Ltd..
Under the scheme, sum assured is paid to the victim/family or legal heir of the victim as the case may be in case of death/injury of reserved passengers due to train accident/untoward incidents as defined under section 123 read with Sections 124 and 124A of the Railways Act, 1989, subject to the qualification that the coverage will be valid from the actual departure of train from the originating station to actual arrival of train at the destination station including ‘process of entraining’ and ‘process of detraining’ the train.
The insurance scheme is available to passengers of all reserved classes (SL, 1AC, 2AC, 3AC) of all trains (except passenger trains & sub-urban trains) for only tickets booked online on the IRCTC websites. Passengers booking reserved tickets through the manually operated Railway reservation counters and those travelling on unreserved tickets are not entitled to avail of this insurance scheme.
The sum assured to be given to victim/family or legal heir of the victim are as follows:-
(i) In case of Death- Rs. 10 lakh,
(ii) Permanent Total Disability – Rs. 10 Lakh,
(iii) Permanent Partial Disability upto- Rs. 7.5 Lakh,
(iv) Hospitalization Expenses for Injury – Rs. 2 Lakh,
(v) Transportation of mortal remains – Rs. 10,000.
