Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

`9' drives them crazy

G. Ravikiran

IT'S ALL IN THE NUMBERS: Car owners plumping for fancy registration numbers is catching on like wild fire. - A FILE PHOTO: Mohd. Yousuf

VIJAYAWADA: The ever-increasing fascination among vehicle users, especially those of four-wheelers, for fancy registration numbers has fetched the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) here a whopping Rs.3.75 lakh in a particular instance on Thursday.

The magical number - `9999' — in the AP 16 BB series was bid for Rs. 3.25 lakh by the owner of a TATA Safari, who paid an initial fee of Rs.50,000 for participating in the day's auction. Declining to disclose the identity of the successful bidder on the grounds that the RTA norms would not allow it, Deputy Transport Commissioner M. Ratna Manikyam told The Hindu that as many as five vehicle owners participated in the auction for the number and all of them paid the initial fee of Rs. 50,000 each to participate in the auction.

As per the RTA's policy, numbers 1, 9, 999 and 9999 in every series are considered the most premium numbers.

Auction of number series

The successful bidder got the number finally after all the other four did not dare to go beyond Rs. 3.25 lakh.

The initial fee was returned to the disappointed four bidders. Ms. Ratna Manikyam said the auction of `1' in the same series fetched Rs. 50,090, while `8' in the same series brought Rs. 7,770. The other fancy numbers in the series that secured good revenue for the RTA were `18' (Rs. 10,800), `23' (Rs. 8,480) and `9' (Rs. 50,000). All put together, these number contributed a total amount of Rs.4,07,240 to the RTA Krishna district in a single day.

The officer said that the new series AP 16 BC had also begun, and the enthusiasm was evident among vehicle owners to bid for premium numbers in this series too. She said fancy numbers had consistently been proving to be a good source of income for the RTA.

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