With no cover for cycles, riders on insecure pedal

BANGALORE: “Please lock your bicycles while you park...” is how GoGreen’s Prabhakar Rao invites fellow cyclists for weekend rides of GoGreenGoCycling.
The red bold-lettered instruction indicates the gravity of the problem: high-end bicycles, costing between Rs 15,000 and Rs 2 lakh, are vulnerable to theft. Rao said at least one cycle is stolen every month.With no insurance company coming forward to insure individual bicycles, the 1,000-member-strong brigade is opting for group insurance. “For this, we have to insure at least 500 bicycles. The insurer wants the group to be registered in a structured way. Monetary aspect is involved in this, besides time-consuming procedures,” he said. Each member may have to pay a minimum of Rs 350 as premium. Murali H R of Namma Cycles, a bicycle-sharing project initiated at Bangalore University’s Jnanabharati campus, said they have got a proposal from New India Assurance (NIA) for insuring 200 bikes for a premium of 1.25% on the total sum insured, besides service tax (which comes to Rs 70 for each bicycle).
Individual cyclists either have to fend for themselves or have their bicycles insured under household articles. Said A Devendra Prasad, NIA branch manager at Rajajinagar: “We consider pedal bicycles under household articles which have to be listed under certain sections like fire, theft, domestic appliance.” In case of theft, NIA will compensate the loss after getting a non-traceable certificate from police, and three months after the case is registered. Depreciation value of the bicycles is also considered. Those opting for this will have to pay at least Rs 1,500 as premium (twice that of motorbikes and scooters).
Insurance companies TOI spoke to cited lack of registration for not covering bicycles, their high cost notwithstanding. Amitabh Jain, VP (customer service motor), ICICI Lombard GIC Ltd, said in an email statement: “...insurance is a business of large numbers and it is not feasible to provide risk cover if the risk pool is not adequate. Also, since the value of the cover for a bicycle would be very low, procuring business in a cost-effective manner would be a challenge. If there is a sizable business opportunity which is feasible, we are sure the industry would respond to it.” Rohan Kini of BumsOnTheSaddle says at least 100 high-end bicycles are sold every month, and some of them are costlier than bikes, “Still, cyclists find it difficult to insure their precious wheels,”.