Fancy number plates: Nothing fancy, only headache

Visakhapatnam: Motorists seeking fancy numbers for their new two and four wheelers are having a tough time arising due to technical glitches in the online bidding process. The fancy number seekers say website of the state transport department was crashing and cash transfer option was not working properly.
Stung by criticism that politicians have been securing fancy numbers at base price, the AP transport department started e-auction of fancy registration numbers for four-wheelers and two-wheelers a month ago to cash the craze for fancy numbers.

A motorist, who had been eyeing a fancy number for his car, said that online payment and cash transfer was a mess on the website as sometimes motorists were forced to pay  twice for the number and the amount was credited to the respective accounts after one week. “Sometimes, the website either collapsed or showed an error message and so, I stopped trying,” he said.

There is no clarity on the website on how many people are fighting for a particular fancy number. The website of transport department is very slow and whenever I tried to raise the bidding price on the website, it failed and got jammed, said another motorist Ravi Kumar. In what could be a craze for fancy registration number, a resident of Vizag, P.V. Radhakrishna, paid Rs 4.6 lakh for AP31 DN 9999 for his new luxury car last year through sealed cover auction.

Admitting that they have received complaints about the e-auction, deputy transport commissioner Vizag, S.V. Rao said their department would rectify the problem in the coming days to make more people join the e-auction. “We are expecting that the virtual fight for the fancy numbers would generate more revenue,” he added.