Karnataka - Hubli-Dharwad   

Residents join hands to make road ‘safe’

Ensuring quality: Timmasagar Temple Main Road, the first municipal road to be insured in the country is due for renewal of its insurance policy.

HUBLI: The first municipal road to be insured in the country, which has made it to the Limca Book of Records, is due for renewal of its insurance policy and this time it would be a specially designed insurance policy for it.

The Oriental Insurance Company Ltd. which had issued a one-year policy for the Timmasagar Temple Main Road for a sum assured of Rs. 2 lakh carrying an annual premium of Rs. 303 under Standard Fire and Special Perils Policy, has now come up with a specially designed policy for the road.

According to Mrutyunjay C. Sindhur, the medical practitioner who got the road insured, the policy had been designed in such a way that it covers the major risk factors but at the same time the premium would be kept low.

The new policy covers damages, which are most likely to happen in the local conditions. What is significant now is that the 385-metre long road would be insured for a higher sum (Rs. 6 lakh) this time and Dr. Sindhur will not be sole person to bear the cost of the insurance policy.

Motivated by the initiative taken by the doctor, residents of Timmasagar Temple Main Road have now come forward to be a part of the endeavour to keep their road “safe.”

According to Dr. Sindhur, the insurance policy of the road will expire on midnight of August 1 and that they had begun the process of getting it renewed.

“The most important document that the residents require for getting a municipal road insured is a no-objection certificate from the local body concerned. On behalf of the residents, I have already written a letter to the Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation on July 14 and I am hopeful that the corporation, which had encouraged when I first took the initiative, will encourage us by issuing the NOC at the earliest,” he said.

The Timmasagar Temple Main Road in Vidyanagar of Hubli first made news after Dr. Sindhur took the initiative of getting the then newly asphalted road insured against damages in August 2007.

The road, which was in a state of neglect for years, was asphalted by the Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation at a cost of Rs. 10.5 lakh. It was then that the idea of getting the road insured struck Dr. Sindhur. After he followed up the matter with the then municipal commissioner P. Manivannan, a “no objection certificate” was issued by the corporation for getting the road insured. Consequently, the road was insured by Dr. Sindhur through The Oriental Insurance Company Ltd.

In March 2008, Dr. Sindhur created a blog for creating awareness on the benefits of getting roads insured. The blog, www.insuredroad.blogspot.com, has all the details on the new initiative, an explanation on why insuring a road was required and the benefits of it. The blog has details on the procedure for getting a road insured, who could insure a road and the documents required for insuring a public road and other details.

The initiative has been now considered as a record by the Limca Book of Records and has found mention in the 2008 version of Limca Book.

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