LIC western zonal manager T K Banerjee, who was here to inaugurate LICs second information call centre, says: "We will add another six centres by September 2002, covering the other three metros and Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Bangalore."

The investment per centre consists of the addition of one telephone line. Among the benefits offered by the information call centre initiative is that LIC gets new business leads that the concerned branch follows up, going by their experience in Mumbai.

It also allows for better customer service, since the centre follows up on customers queries or problems. LIC officials say the IT initiative will see the Pune division linked by metro and local area networks.