Insure excavators, graders and cranes with Oriental Insurance through Desi Machines — coverage, premium factors, claims and Indian norms explained for owners.
The Oriental Insurance Company Limited was incorporated on 12 September 1947 in Mumbai, in the very first weeks of independent India. It is wholly owned by the Government of India and ranks among the country’s larger non-life insurers. Its head office is now in New Delhi, and it holds IRDAI registration number 556.
The network is built for reach. Oriental runs around 29 regional offices and more than 1,500 branches across India, and it is one of the few Indian insurers with overseas operations — branches in Nepal, Kuwait and Dubai. On the motor side it backs a cashless garage network running into the thousands, with more than 7,900 tie-ups. For an equipment owner, that wide domestic spread paired with a genuine international presence speaks to both heritage and staying power.
Decades of writing engineering and project cover mean Oriental is a long-standing name in plant insurance rather than a recent arrival — and that experience tends to show in how comfortably it handles a site claim.
The appeal is a blend of heritage and reach. A company that has been underwriting risk since 1947 has seen the full range of what a construction site can throw up, and as a long-standing engineering-insurance underwriter it treats Contractors’ Plant & Machinery and project cover as core business, not an afterthought. For an owner running excavators, graders, loaders or cranes, that experience tends to mean a smoother, better-informed assessment when something goes wrong.
Its footprint is the practical clincher. With 29 regional offices and well over 1,500 branches, there is usually an Oriental office near wherever your machines happen to be working, which makes intimating and following up a claim straightforward. And as one of very few Indian insurers with branches in Nepal, Kuwait and Dubai, it brings an international dimension that most domestic peers simply do not have.
At the centre sits the Contractors’ Plant & Machinery (CPM) policy. It responds to sudden, unforeseen accidental physical loss or damage to the machines you schedule, whether they are at work, standing idle, or down for maintenance — covering fire and allied perils, theft and burglary, accidental external damage, overturning, and natural events such as flood, storm and landslide. Each machine is listed with its own sum insured, typically on a current replacement-value basis.
For project work, Oriental also writes Contractors’ All Risk (CAR) for civil construction such as roads and buildings, and Erection All Risk (EAR) for installation, testing and commissioning jobs, with plant able to be brought in as a section where it suits. Internal electrical or mechanical failure — which CPM keeps out by design — is handled through a separate Machinery Breakdown cover. As a full-line public-sector insurer, it also offers motor and commercial vehicle cover, useful for the road-going units in a mixed fleet.
A plant policy has its boundaries, and knowing them upfront prevents surprises later. CPM does not pay the excess you agree to carry on each loss. It excludes ordinary wear and tear, rust, corrosion and gradual deterioration, and it leaves out consumables and wear parts such as tyres, ropes, belts, drill bits, fuel and lubricants. Pure internal breakdown is excluded unless Machinery Breakdown is added. So too are losses from overloading or pushing a machine past its rated capacity, wilful negligence, war and nuclear perils, transit between locations unless specifically extended, and the on-road liability of a road-registered vehicle — which falls to a motor policy, covered in the next section.
There is no single price tag, because each machine sits at a different level of risk. As a rough yardstick, annual CPM premiums in India usually fall somewhere between about 0.5% and 1.5% of a machine’s insured value. Purely as an illustration, a machine insured for ₹50 lakh might sit in the ₹25,000 to ₹75,000 range a year before GST. Your real figure will hinge on the machine’s type and age, its insured value, where and how it works — hilly, flood-prone, mining and tunnelling sites carry a higher rate — your claims history, the excess you accept, and the add-ons you take. Choosing a higher voluntary excess brings the premium down. For a number you can actually act on you need a quote, which is where Desi Machines steps in.
If a machine is damaged or stolen, notify Oriental quickly — a day or two is the safe habit — and lodge an FIR at once for theft, burglary or any third-party incident. You can intimate a loss through its toll-free claims line or your servicing branch, and the company also runs an online portal and app for tracking. It then appoints an IRDAI-licensed surveyor to inspect the loss and work out cause and quantum. Keep the paperwork ready: the policy copy, a completed claim form, registration papers where they apply, the FIR for theft, repair estimates and bills, and dated photographs. For motor losses, its large cashless garage network can make repairs simpler. Where liability is clear, an on-account payment can be released before the final settlement so your work isn’t held up.
A few rules apply regardless of which insurer you choose. Only IRDAI-registered companies may issue these policies, Oriental included, and every policy carries a UIN. The premium attracts 18% GST — the September 2025 changes cut the tax only on individual life and health cover, so commercial engineering insurance stays at 18%, though a GST-registered business can usually recover it as input tax credit. If a machine such as a mobile crane, a dumper or certain backhoe loaders runs on public roads, it must be registered and carry mandatory third-party motor insurance alongside CPM; a unit kept inside 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 operators and crew for injury or death on the job.
We're the link, not the insurer — we gather quotes from IRDAI-registered companies like Oriental 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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