Cover excavators, rollers and cranes with National Insurance through Desi Machines — India's oldest general insurer. Coverage, costs, claims and norms explained.
National Insurance Company Limited started life in Kolkata on 5 December 1906, which makes it India’s oldest general insurer — it was writing policies under British India and has kept going through every chapter since. For decades it sat as a subsidiary of the General Insurance Corporation, and in 2002 it was de-linked from GIC to operate as a standalone company wholly owned by the Government of India. It carries IRDAI registration number 58, and its head office is still in Kolkata.
For someone insuring heavy plant, the things that count are reach and experience, and National has both in spades. It runs close to two thousand offices across the country, plus a branch over the border in Nepal — one of the few Indian insurers with a presence outside India. Just as useful for equipment owners, it keeps a dedicated engineering department, so contractors’ and machinery covers are handled by people who actually understand a site, not treated as a side line to motor and health.
More than a century of underwriting engineering and project risks means the company has seen the full catalogue of what goes wrong on a job — and that institutional memory shows up in how its plant policies are framed.
The pull here is heritage paired with engineering depth. This is not a newcomer learning plant risk on the job; it is a 100-plus-year-old insurer with a standing engineering team that has been writing Contractors’ Plant & Machinery and erection cover for generations of Indian builders. For an owner running excavators, rollers, dumpers, cranes or drilling rigs, that translates into underwriters and surveyors who recognise the difference between a tunnelling site and a flat urban plot, and price the risk accordingly.
Its near-nationwide office network is the other draw. Whether your fleet is working a highway stretch in the interior or a project near the Nepal border, there is usually a National office within reach to intimate a loss and follow it through. For a contractor whose machines rarely sit in one district for long, that on-the-ground spread matters more than any glossy brochure.
The backbone is the Contractors’ Plant & Machinery (CPM) policy. It steps in for sudden, unforeseen accidental physical loss or damage to the machines you list — and crucially it holds whether the unit is working, standing at rest, or down for maintenance. That covers the usual run of trouble: fire and allied perils, theft and burglary, accidental external damage, overturning, and natural events such as flood, storm and landslide. Each machine sits on the schedule with its own sum insured, generally on a replacement-value footing. National writes this cover for plant working anywhere in India, so it suits an owner whose machines move around.
Beyond the core policy, the company also offers Erection All Risk (EAR) for installation, testing and commissioning jobs, and a separate Machinery Breakdown cover for the internal electrical and mechanical failures that CPM deliberately leaves out. On the add-on side you can build in third-party liability, escalation to keep pace with rising replacement costs, and extensions for freight and customs duty so a machine’s full landed value is reflected, not just its base price.
Every plant policy has edges, and learning them upfront saves a sour conversation at claim time. CPM does not pay the excess you agree to carry on each loss. It sets aside ordinary wear and tear, rust, corrosion and the slow decline that comes with age. Consumables and wear-prone parts — tyres, ropes, belts, drill bits, fuel and lubricants — sit outside the cover. Pure internal breakdown is excluded unless you have taken Machinery Breakdown alongside. Also out: damage from overloading or running a machine past its rated capacity, wilful negligence, war and nuclear perils, transit between sites unless specifically added, and the on-road liability of a vehicle licensed for public roads — that last piece belongs to a motor policy, which we come to below.
There is no flat rate, because no two machines carry the same exposure. As a broad marker, annual CPM premiums in India usually land somewhere between roughly 0.5% and 1.5% of a machine’s insured value. To put a picture to it — and this is illustration only — a machine insured for ₹50 lakh might sit in the ₹25,000 to ₹75,000 band a year before GST. Your actual figure turns on the machine’s type and age, its insured value, the kind of site it works (hilly, flood-prone, mining and tunnelling ground rate higher), your claims record, the excess you accept, and the add-ons you choose. Carrying a higher voluntary excess pulls the premium down. The only honest number is a quote, and that is precisely what Desi Machines arranges for you.
If a machine is damaged or goes missing, get word to National quickly — a day or two is the safe habit — and lodge an FIR at once for theft, burglary or any third-party incident. The company runs a 24-hour toll-free claims line on 1800 345 0330, and you can also intimate a loss through your servicing branch. It then appoints an IRDAI-licensed surveyor to inspect the loss, establish the cause and work out the amount payable. Have the paperwork ready: the policy copy, a completed claim form, registration papers where the machine has them, the FIR for theft, repair estimates and bills, and dated photographs of the damage. Where the company’s liability is clear, an on-account payment can be released ahead of the final settlement so your work isn’t left waiting.
24×7 claims: 1800 345 0330
A handful of rules apply no matter which insurer you sign with. Only IRDAI-registered companies may issue these policies, National among them, and every policy carries a UIN. The premium attracts 18% GST — the September 2025 GST changes lifted the tax only on individual life and health cover, so commercial engineering insurance is still charged at 18%, though a GST-registered business can normally recover it as input tax credit. If a machine such as a mobile crane, a dumper or certain backhoe loaders travels on public roads, it has to be registered and carry mandatory third-party motor insurance on top of CPM; a unit that never leaves an enclosed site usually does not. And because construction is hazardous work, an Employees’ Compensation (Workmen’s Compensation) policy is the standard way to cover your operators and crew against injury or death on the job.
We're the link, not the insurer — we gather quotes from IRDAI-registered companies like National Insurance and help you read what's genuinely covered before you decide.
Desi Machines is a facilitator that helps equipment owners connect with IRDAI-registered insurers. We are not an insurer and do not issue policies — cover, eligibility, premium and claim decisions rest with the insurer under its policy terms. Premium figures shown are indicative, not quotes, and 18% GST applies. Please confirm current terms with the insurer before you buy.
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