For this number, the Registration and Licensing Authority (RLA) had received four applications.
Bought in the name of a firm, Castle Resorts, with its quiet office in Sector 35, it was an employee of the firm who came to participate in the auction.
However, sources in RLA say that the fancy number has been bought for a Rolls Royce worth approximately Rs 2 crore. The same firm also participated in a previous auction but failed to get a number of their choice.
Significantly, during the auction of fancy numbers in the series CH 01 AP, 0001 went for Rs 26 lakh, and a builder in Chandigarh paid that amount just to buy the registration number ‘CH-01-AP-0001’ for his new Mercedes car at the auction. This is the highest-ever amount made by the RLA in Chandigarh from any auction of registration numbers for motor vehicles.
The previous highest bid was of Rs 17 lakh for the number ‘CH-01-AN-0001’ which was taken by agriculturist-businessman Jagjit Singh Chahal in June this year for his Rs 85-lakh Toyota Land Cruiser.
At Monday’s auction, 0002 fetched Rs 1.60 lakh and the RLA had received four applications for this number as well. Then 0003 in this series fetched Rs 1.28 lakh and there were six bids for the number.
Similarly, 0004 fetched Rs 2.65 lakh while 0005 went for Rs 3.21 lakh, 0006 went for Rs 1.75 lakh and the famous 0007 fetched Rs 2.76 lakh.
Besides, 0008 was bought for Rs 1.55 lakh, 0009 for Rs 3.97 lakh while 0010 in the series went for Rs 1.51 lakh.
During Monday’s auction, the RLA earned a total revenue of Rs 87.45 lakh by auctioning 170 numbers in all.
Bidders inconvenienced
While the auction was scheduled to begin at 11 am, it could not start for one hour as SDM-cum-RLA Parshuram Kavle arrived an hour behind the scheduled time, leaving hundreds of bidders inconvenienced. Lack of arrangements at the auction were once again exposed with barely a handful of chairs available for over 200 applicants. Many of them chose to stand outside as there was no ventilation in the small portion of the hall where the auction was to be held. Significantly, each auction of the RLA fetches lakhs of rupees as the revenue but the authorities have failed to provide even the most basic facilities to the bidders who come in the morning and spend their whole day in the auction, said a bidder requesting anonymity. “Everyone is jostling for space here even to stand, forget about seats. There is no proper light or ventilation. The least that the authorities can do is that hold the auction outside so that at least all the bidders are accommodated,” said another bidder.