It is common knowledge that whoever buys a personal vehicle — be it with two, three or four wheels — it is mandatory for the owners to run it on the roads paying insurance, with at least a third-party cover.
This being the case, it is interesting to note that the public undertaking Telangana State Road Transport Corporation’s every vehicle that is in the name of the corporation — be it a jeep used by Depot Managers, to luxury cars and sports utility vehicles used by members of the Board of Directors and Chairman does not have insurance.
The reason is very simple, the corporation cannot afford to bear the high cost of insurance. When contacted, Managing Director G.V. Ramana Rao said this was indeed quite common in public transport undertakings.
“For an organisation like ours, paying insurance is just not viable. Instead, we pay out third-party expenses for those who get hurt grievously or killed in accidents involving our buses and other vehicles, from our own revenues. We have permission from the government for this, as long as we implement rulings of the relevant agencies including the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal that handle third-party cases,” he told The Hindu .
When asked for statistics, Mr. Rao said the payout of the corporation in the fiscal 2015-16 towards servicing such claims was Rs. 46.06 crore, much less than what the premium will be. “As it is an everyday struggle juggling between costs and revenues, we simply cannot pay insurance premia,” said another officer.
