Vadodara: The tony Sayajigunj area of the city was submerged in the August flood and parts of it were flooded again at the end of last month. While it seems obvious that most businesses here would have flood insurance , that is not the case. Sayajigunj has been an area that gets flooded even when other parts of the city are safe.
The worst inundation of the area took place in 2005 and then this Aug. On other occasions, parts of the area have gotten waterlogged to varying extents, depending on the level of the Vishwamitri river. Nilesh Book Store, which got submerged in 2014 when it was in the basement, had shifted to the ground floor in 2019 but was underwater this time too.
Its owner, Nilesh Agrawal , said offices and shops in the basement, semi-basement, and ground floor were unable to get flood insurance. "We can get insurance cover for fire and other things, but not floods. We have been told that businesses within 500m of the river cannot be insured against floods," Agrawal said.
He added that the process of insuring shops at lower levels of buildings stopped around 2007. Vadodara Vepar Vikas Association (VVVA) president Paresh Parikh said it was true that shops on some floors likely to get inundated are unable to get insurance. He added that many people bought insurance policies for shops at these levels, not knowing that cover for flooding was not included.
Parikh said businessmen need to check if flooding is included in their policy if they have shops in the basement, .