Kochi: With hundreds of cars getting swamped by floodwaters, especially in districts like Ernakulam, there is now a heavy demand for car-towing services so mu-ch so that many of the car owners are in “queue” for availing of the service.
“We’re getting a lot of calls from customers who rue that they couldn’t get any car-towing service. Finally, we’ve tied up with a service provider. But there is so much rush that we’ve to start bookings. The advance bookings till Thurs-day have been already done,” said L. Sunita, customer relations manager (service), Perfect Honda, Kalamassery.
“There is a specific instruction that the flood-damaged cars should not be started. A technician from the service centre finally arrived after repeated calls but asked us to take the car to the showroom as it needed the engine to be taken out for cleaning. However, I couldn’t get a towing service despite repeated attempts,” said Sadasivan Nair, a resident of Companypaddy.
Also, the cars have to be repaired only at authorized service centres to get insurance coverage.
Meanwhile, car service centres in flood-hit areas are already full with vehicles for repair. It would cost anywhere from Rs 5,000 to Rs 20, 000 to repair the cars based on their condition.
“We’re getting an average of 120 calls per day requesting to attend to the damaged cars,” said Sunita.
“We’ve formed special te-ams of technicians to visit the houses and inspect the cars. We’re trying our best to send the teams within two hours of receiving the calls,” said Sujatha, sales manager, Sai Services, Edapally. However, many of the service centres are not able to meet the huge demand.
“Five cars parked on the compound got damaged in the floods. We contacted the showroom on Monday when they promised to send technicians. However, they are yet to come even after a day,” said K.I. Siyad, caretaker of ‘Abad Aquarius’, Thottumugham.
