05 August,2011 06:53 AM IST | | Varun Singh and Chetna Sadadekar
GSB mandal at King's Circle, the richest in the city, will insure its pandal and devotees with a multi-crore cover this year; Lalbaugcha Raja is insured at Rs 14 crore
In a world of uncertainty, security comes at a price, as any insurance policy holder would tell you.
And when the insurance involves a popular deity, festivities in whose honour span 10 days and attract lakhs of devotees, the cover may extend well beyond Rs 50 crore!
The insurance for the jewellery of the Ganesh idol
at the GSB Mandal, King's Circle would be around R16 crore
Yes, the whopping figure is what the city's richest Ganpati mandal, the GSB Seva Sadan, has quoted to indemnify the Ganesh celebrations starting September 1.
Based at King's Circle in Matunga, the mandal's insurance cover is likely to cross the Rs 50- crore mark this Ganeshotsav, its trustees said.
Last year, GSB had already set a record with a Rs-49.5 crore insurance cover.
Although they are still seeking quotations from insurance companies and the details are yet to be ironed out, they are expecting to break their previous record this year.
"We have asked for quotation from insurance companies. We are expecting it to cross the Rs-50 crore mark this year. We will decide on the company within a week.
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The insurance would last till the idol goes for immersion at Girgaum Chowpatty," said Satish Naik, one of the mandal's trustees.u00a0
The insurance would cover the jewellery used to adorn the deity, the devotees who come for darshan, and the pandal itself.
"According to our calculation, 200-300 devotees stand in the pandal at any given time and we have ensured them with nearly Rs 10 lakh each.
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The insurance for jewellery, worth around Rs 16 crore, would be exceeding of its value.
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The cover for the pandal is undecided yet," Naik said. The idol, made of soft clay, is not insured.
Rs 14 cr for Raja
Apparently, with the cost of idols shooting up by 30 per cent this year, the insurance has also gone up by leaps and bounds for Ganpati mandals in the city.
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Another popular pandal, Lalbaugcha Raja, has already been insured for Rs 14 crore, almost three times what it was last year (Rs 5 crore). This means the Mandal would be insured for Rs 1.4 crore per day.
Rajendra Lanjwal, treasurer of Lalbaugcha Raja Sarvajanik Ganesh Utsav Mandal, confirmed the insurance cover for their pandal, which receives nearly 1 crore people during the 10-day festival.
But unlike last year when only the pandal and the devotees were insured, the jewellery adorning the idol has also been covered.
"We had been planning to insure the Lord's jewellery for a long time now. This year, we finally decided to do that.
A GSB Ganpati mandal trustee said the insurance would cover
the jewellery that adorns the deity, the devotees who come
for darshan and the pandal till the idol goes for immersion
at Girgaum Chowpatty
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We have added the Lord's ornaments to the inventory. Of the Rs-14 crore cover, Rs 5 crore has been set aside for devotees, Rs 6 crore for jewellery and Rs 3 crore for the pandal," said Lanjwal.
The mandal has already paid the EMI of Rs 4.5 lakh. Mandals usually pay only a one-time installment for such insurance covers.
Indemnity for the gods
1 The insurance cover for Tirupati Balaji's jewels is a whopping Rs 52,000 crore.
Last year, United India Insurance provided cover for a small portion of the jewellery at Tirupati, when it is occasionally taken out for ceremonies, apart from personal accident cover for devotees in the 7-km radius of the temple.
2 The Guruvayoor temple in Kerala foots an annual insurance premium bill of close to Rs 50 lakh, with its wealth of 400 kg of gold and Rs 400 crore in bank deposits. The arrangement covers land, buildings, jewellery, cows and elephants, among other things, on its premises.
3 The ancient treasures of Tutankhamun, the world's most famous Egyptian king who lived thousands of years ago, have been insured for $650 millionu00a0 dollars. Some of the most valuable artifacts in human history, they are used for art exhibitions across the US.
Terror insurance
Pilgrimage places such as Vaishnodevi temple in Jammu and Kashmir, Tirupathi Devasthanam in Andhra Pradesh and the Meenakshi temple in Madurai have opted for insurance against terror attacks After the 2002 terror attack on the Akshardham temple in Gujarat, many other temples ran to take insurance shelter.
Lalbaugcha Raja cover
Rs 5 cr
For the devotees
Rs 6 cr
For the jewellery
Rs 3 cr
For the pandal at Lalbaug
