Chennai Silks building: Insurers to assess damage in a week

CHENNAI: New India Insurance Co. Ltd has insured Chennai Silks’ damaged building and stocks for a sum of Rs 60 crore and it will take about a week to assess the damage for claims, senior officials told Deccan Chronicle.

New India Insurance, a public sector general insurance company, took over the insurance premium of Chennai Silks only last year, before which, the insurance cover was with National Insurance, known sources told DC.

According to sources, all branches of Chennai Silks have been covered for an insurance sum of Rs 250 crore. “Due to the fire that continued for over two days, it would be difficult to get a clear picture of the damage and to settle the claims just now. We are not aware of the extent of the damage,” said an official of New India Insurance.

Despite numerous people raising questions over giving insurance cover to Chennai Silks despite numerous violations, officials from insurance companies said that settling claims is purely subject to insurance policy details submitted by the owner.

For getting damages settled through claims, violations would not be a botheration,  officials from the insurance sector said, adding that the policy proposal submitted to the insurer is signed by the property owner in ‘utmost good faith.’ This means that everything filled in the proposal form is taken to be true.

“Getting the claims settled would be an easy process. It would take a while before insurance company sends surveyors to evaluate the losses and the damage,” said an employee of an insurance employees union.

The sole catch for not getting claims settled, in the case of violation in terms of extra floors, is that the owner would not get claims for the stocks on the floors other than that mentioned in the proposal.

“The proposal needs a clear mention of the number of floors in the building and the stock on each floor. If that has been mentioned, then getting the insurance claimed settled is not a problem. Even hazardous substances like diesel, kerosene needed for operations of the building are covered under the claims,” the officer said.

Another official, from National Insurance Company, said that legal violations would be dealt by with the course of law but insurance claims will not be affected.

Officials added that Chennai Silks did not have a public liability policy in place, which means that any other building or establishment in the vicinity that suffered damages will not be liable for legal settlement of claims through insurer of the former.

What will process be?
Surveyors from the insurance company would assess the damage to building and the stocks Submission of documents –
1. Stock register to assess damage to stock. In case stock register was destroyed too, bank transaction details, invoice slips, receipts from dealers are  needed.
2. Details on the incident – FIR, fire brigade report, newspaper reports, investigation reports