However, the liabilities of General Insurance Corporation's (GIC) four subsidiaries will be restricted to around Rs 150 crore as all the policies have been re-insured up to 80-85 per cent in the international market. Foreign reinsurance companies will be paying about $150 million to meet their liabilities.

The final amount of Essar's Vadinar project, which is insured by the Chennai-based United India, is calculated to be over Rs 300 crore, while the Delhi-based Oriental Insurance will pay around Rs 200 crore to Reliance's Jamnagar project for settling its insurance claim.

According to sources, Essar and Reliance had asked for over Rs 400 crore and Rs 200 crore, respectively, as insurance claims. Essar's amount is bigger than that ofReliance as the company had claimed money from insurance companies against the advance loss of profit (ALOP). ALOP provides covers against any loss of future income due to any damage occurring during a project execution leading to a delay in its commissioning.

"The two insurance companies are in the final stage of investigation for settling the two corporates' claims," said industry sources.

Oriental Insurance had received 900 claims for Rs 450 crore, while United India has received 833 claims for an amount of Rs 671.87 crore.

The GIC subsidiaries-- New India Assurance, United India, Oriental Insurance and National Insurance -- have virtually settled all claims related to the Kandla storm except for these two.

The companies had received around Rs 1,500 crore worth of claims for losses incurred on account of the cyclone. The number of claims reported to the insurance companies has been pegged at about 3,300. Substantial re-insurance compensation may boost the bottomline of the companies for 1998-99,the sources said.

The largest GIC subsidiary, New India Assurance, so far settled around 1,000 claims worth Rs 112 crore. The company had receivd claims for 1,075 cases for Rs 215 crore. The smallest subsidiary National Insurance has paid around Rs 20 crore for settling 385 claims.

In the wake of the cyclone which damaged the Reliance facility, financial institutions led by the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) and a clutch of foreign institutional lenders have asked Reliance to take a Rs 40-crore worth of ALOP risk cover for its Jamnagar refinery project during the last phase of its completion. The petrochemicals giant is required to pay a premium of Rs 40 crore to Oriental Insurance and New India Assurance in three instalments for an insured sum of around Rs 3,000 crore. The total risk on account of the ALOP will be shared by Oriental Insurance and New India Assurance in the ratio of 8:2.