Monday, September 10, 2007

ICICI Lombard Emerges Lowest Bidder For Rail Passengers Cover

Leading private insurer ICICI Lombard is understood to have emerged as the front-runner to bag Indian Railways'' account to provide insurance cover to more than 650 crore passengers who travel by trains every year. ICICI Lombard is said to be the lowest bidder for providing insurance cover to passengers against death and disability in train accidents, industry sources said. The company is believed to have made a bid of Rs 0.0475 per person, resulting in a total premium of Rs 34.35 crore, pipping private sector rival Reliance General Insurance of the Anil Ambani Group. Four state-run insurers -- United Insurance, New Indian Assurance, Oriental Insurance and National Insurance -- were also in the race to bag the deal.

The cover could be up to Rs four lakh to the next of kin of passengers in case of death and lower in case of disability resulting from train accidents. When contacted, Vishakha Mulye, ICICI Bank''s Group Chief Financial Officer, told the company did not have any communication from the Railways on the issue. Asked as to who ICICI Lombard would be tying up with for re-insurance of the mega deal, she said: The partner and the size of re-insurance would be taken up at appropriate time we are yet to hear if we are the lowest bidder. ICICI Lombard is a joint venture between the country''s largest private lender ICICI Bank and Lombard, a part of Royal Bank of Scotland.

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