Cholamandalam MS Construction Equipment Insurance

About Cholamandalam MS

Cholamandalam MS General Insurance — Chola MS for short — was founded in 2001 and began operations in 2002. It carries IRDAI registration number 123. It is an Indo-Japanese joint venture: the Murugappa Group, a Chennai conglomerate whose history goes back to 1900, holds around 74%, and Japan’s Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, part of the MS&AD group, holds roughly 26%. The company runs its operations out of Chennai.

For an equipment owner, the dual heritage is the headline. On one hand is a 120-year-old Indian business house with deep roots in manufacturing and finance; on the other, a Japanese insurer known for disciplined engineering underwriting. The practical numbers back it up: Chola MS operates roughly 135 to 145 branches spread across about 26 states, a notably dense cashless garage network of more than 8,300 workshops, and over 9,000 network hospitals. When a high-value machine is on the line, that combination of backing and reach counts.

Why insure with Cholamandalam MS

A couple of things make it a strong choice for plant cover. The first is the engineering depth that comes from a Japanese parent steeped in machinery risk, sitting on top of a century-old Indian industrial group — this is an insurer that takes complex equipment seriously. The second is the service spread: with one of the denser cashless garage networks in the country at over 8,300 workshops, getting a road-registered unit in your fleet repaired without a cash crunch is rarely a problem. Add a full engineering suite — Contractors’ All Risk, Erection All Risk and a dedicated Contractors’ Plant & Machinery product — and you can cover both the project and the machine under one roof.

Coverages available

At the centre sits the Contractors’ Plant & Machinery policy. It pays for sudden, accidental physical loss or damage to the machines you list — running, parked, or pulled apart for maintenance — from fire and allied perils, theft and burglary, accidental external impact, overturning, and natural events such as flood, storm and landslide. Each machine is scheduled with its own sum insured, generally on a current replacement-value basis that takes in freight and duty.

Chola MS rounds this out with a complete engineering line. Contractors’ All Risk covers civil works under construction; Erection All Risk covers the erection, installation, testing and commissioning of plant and structures; and plant can be added as a section of either where it suits the job. Machinery Breakdown takes care of the internal electrical and mechanical failures the plant policy keeps out. The usual add-ons — third-party liability, owner’s surrounding property, debris removal, escalation and an anywhere-in-India extension — let the cover keep pace with a machine that moves around.

What's usually not covered

What it's likely to cost

No single rate fits every machine, since the risk is never the same twice. As a broad indicator, annual plant premiums in India usually sit between 0.5% and 1.5% of the insured value. Purely as an example, a machine insured for ₹50 lakh might fall in the region of ₹25,000 to ₹75,000 a year before GST. The actual figure rides on the equipment type and risk group, age and condition, the sum insured, where and how hard it works — hilly, flood-prone and tunnelling sites rate higher — your claims record, the excess chosen, and the add-ons selected. A bigger voluntary excess pulls the premium down. The only firm number comes from a quote, and that is where Desi Machines does the legwork.

How claims work

If a machine is damaged or stolen, intimate Chola MS quickly — within a day or two is the safe practice — and file an FIR right away for theft, burglary or any third-party incident. You can register a claim through the toll-free line, the website or the mobile app, and the company runs a paperless assessment, with either a surveyor appointed or cashless approval given for the motor side of a mixed fleet. Tracking is handled over WhatsApp and the app, so you can follow the file without chasing anyone. Keep the documents ready: the policy copy, a completed claim form, registration papers where applicable, the FIR for theft, repair estimates and bills, and dated photographs. Where liability is clear, an on-account payment can be released ahead of final settlement so the work keeps moving.

Rules & paperwork worth knowing

Frequently asked questions