Close to 60% of vehicles journeying on Indian roads have no motor insurance, most of them two-wheelers such as motorcycles and scooters, according to data from the General Insurance Council (GIC), an association of the country’s general insurance providers.
In 2015-2016, there were 190 million registered vehicles in India but only 82.6 million were insured, according to R Chandrasekaran, GIC secretary-general.
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The figure is alarming since road accidents are quite common in India, with 500,000 crashes occurring in 2015 alone.
A similar situation arose in 2012-2013, when the total number of registered vehicles, including two-wheelers, cars, and heavy vehicles, was at 150 million but only 60.2 million were registered.
Two-wheeled vehicles accounted for 29% of accidents in 2015, while cars made up 23%, with buses at 8.3%. According to transport experts, each vehicle should be insured as uninsured vehicles are a huge liability, especially to accident victims.
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