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| Tremors fail to cheer up home insurers |
| Supratim Dey / Kolkata/ Guwahati Sep 24, 2009, 00:31 IST |
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Despite six moderate to high intensity tremors jolting parts of North-East and Guwahati city in the past 40 days, and experts not denying the probability of a major earthquake in coming days, it has failed to bring noticeable cheer for insurance companies offering home and household insurance here.
After the tremors, the insurance companies were hoping to do some brisk business as they expected people to shelve their no-to-insure mentality and queue up to insure their buildings and households. But nothing of that sort happened, although the number of queries received by insurance companies in Guwahati have increased after the tremors.
Sources from insurance sector told Business Standard that home and household insurance business hasn’t picked up in Guwahati “to the extent expected” despite the tremors. They blame it on the mentality of the people where home or household insurance is never counted as a requirement.
They have admitted that insurance companies failed to put in place a better marketing strategy at this moment to encash on the fear psychosis by countering the general perception on insurance.
The strongest tremor in the past 40 days in the north-east was on September 21, which measured 6.3 on the Richter Scale, and was soon followed by another moderate intensity quake measuring 5.7 on the Richter Scale, later at night.
“Though we have received some queries from Guwahati regarding household and home insurance, it is not to the extent we expected,” said B Basumatary, chief regional manager of Oriental Insurance.
He said that in the last few days, each branch office of Oriental Insurance has received around 2-3 queries from people willing to insure their households or home. Prior to the tremors, the rate of queries, Basumatary said, was almost nil.
Basumatary said that following Monday’s earthquake, which was the strongest of all, Oriental Insurance has received some claims of buildings developing cracks.
The series of tremors has triggered fear and panic among people in Guwahati, especially among those residing in apartments, as many buildings had developed cracks, besides one tilting alarmingly and getting buried few inches following Monday’s jolt. The Assam government has directed concerned departments to undertake a screening of highrises and old buildings following reports of some buildings developing cracks.
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