Reliance General Insurance Construction Equipment Insurance

About Reliance General Insurance

Reliance General has been around since 2000 and holds IRDAI registration number 103, which puts it among the older private general insurers in the country. For most of its life it sat inside Reliance Capital, part of the Anil Ambani group, and grew into one of the top-five private players by reach — over 200 offices spread across 173 cities, and a service network of more than 10,000 hospitals and garages.

The bigger story is what happened next. When Reliance Capital went through insolvency, the company was picked up by IndusInd International Holdings, the insurance arm of the Hinduja Group. The regulator cleared the deal in May 2024, control changed hands in March 2025, and by December 2025 the insurer was being rebranded as IndusInd General Insurance. So what you are really looking at is a 25-year-old insurer reborn under the Hinduja Group through one of India’s largest insolvency resolutions — a settled book of business, now under a new owner with deep pockets.

Why insure with Reliance General Insurance

Two things make it worth a look for a plant owner. First, this is an insurer that genuinely writes engineering business — not as an afterthought, but with a Contractors’ Plant & Machinery product whose own schedule names the kind of kit you run: dozers, forklifts, compressors, drilling machines, even pile-driving rigs. When the policy already speaks your language, underwriting and claims tend to go smoother.

Second, scale and stability. A 173-city footprint means a surveyor or a service point is rarely too far from your site, and a five-figure hospital-and-garage network helps when an operator is hurt or a road-going unit needs repair. With the Hinduja Group now behind it, the balance sheet that has to honour a large engineering claim is a strong one. For a contractor weighing where to place a high-value machine, that combination of experience and backing counts.

Coverages available

The mainstay is the Contractors’ Plant & Machinery (CPM) policy, an annual cover for owned or hired plant. It steps in for sudden, unforeseen physical loss or damage to the machines you list — whether they are working, standing idle, or being dismantled and shifted for maintenance — from fire, theft and burglary, accidental external impact, overturning, and natural events like flood, storm and landslide. Each machine sits on the schedule with its own sum insured, normally on a replacement-value basis.

Beyond CPM, Reliance General writes Contractors’ All Risk (CAR) for civil works under construction and Erection All Risk (EAR) for installation and commissioning projects, both time-bound to the contract. There is a separate Machinery Breakdown cover for internal electrical or mechanical failure — the gap CPM leaves open — and, unusually, a Machinery Loss of Profit add-on that can replace earnings lost while a breakdown keeps a key machine off work. For road-going units it also offers commercial vehicle cover on the goods-carrying side. Useful extensions to ask about include third-party liability, debris removal, escalation, freight and an anywhere-in-India basis so the cover travels with a machine that hops between sites.

What's usually not covered

What it's likely to cost

Nobody can quote a plant premium off a price list, because every machine carries its own risk. As an indicative guide, annual CPM rates in India usually land somewhere between 0.5% and 1.5% of a machine’s insured value. To put a rough number on it — and this is illustration only — a machine insured for ₹50 lakh might run about ₹25,000 to ₹75,000 a year before GST. The actual figure swings with the type and age of the machine, its insured value, the terrain it works on (mining, tunnelling and hilly sites rate higher), your claims record, the excess you accept, and the add-ons you choose. Taking a higher voluntary excess pulls the premium down. For a real number you need a quote, and that is precisely what Desi Machines arranges.

How claims work

Report a loss quickly — a day or two is the safe habit — and file an FIR at once for theft, burglary or any third-party incident. The insurer appoints an IRDAI-licensed surveyor to inspect the damage and settle the cause and the amount. Reliance General runs a dedicated commercial-insurance claims route, and you can reach it on +91-22-48903009; there is also a WhatsApp self-service channel, the IndusInd Insurance mobile app, an AI voicebot and chatbot, video chat and e-KYC to cut down on running around. Keep the basics ready: the policy copy, a filled claim form, registration papers where the machine has them, the FIR for theft, repair estimates and bills, and dated photographs. Where liability is clear, an on-account payment can be released before the final settlement so a stalled machine doesn’t stall the whole job.

Rules & paperwork worth knowing

Frequently asked questions