HYDERABAD: Realty moguls, jewel traders, and private groups on Tuesday stepped up their auction game to get fancy RTA registration numbers, with a bidder clocking an all-time high of Rs21.6 lakh for the ‘9999’ registration number in the process.
Officials said there is high demand for select numbers as groups seek to signal their identity as part of the city’s VIP culture, or due to superstitious reasons.
In a sarcastic take on land auction, where an acre was sold for Rs100 crore in Kokapet, officials at the Road Transport Authority (RTA) office in Khairatabad said they “made only Rs 53,34,894” in the auction for fancy numbers.
The online auction for the numbers was held at the start of a new series — GD — of registration numbers.
The highest bidder was Prime Source Global Services Pvt Ltd, which shelled out Rs21.6 lakh for the number TS 09 GD 9999, followed by Megha Engineering and Infrastructures, which won the number TS 09 GD 0009 for Rs10.5 lakh, and Andhra Infra Projects & Industries Pvt Ltd, which shelled out Rs3,01,000 for the number TS 09 GD 0001.
Among the other fancy numbers to be auctioned were TS 09 GD 0006, for Rs1.83 lakh to Goyaz Jewellery Pvt Ltd, TS 09 GD 0019, for Rs1,70,100 to Sithara Entertainments, TS 09 GD 0045, for Rs1.55 lakh to Sai Pruthvi Enterprises, TS 09 GD 0007, for Rs 1.3 lakh to Finexperts Advisory Services Pvt Ltd and TS 09 GD 0027, for Rs 1,04,999 to Sreenivasa Construction.
The joint transport commissioner for Hyderabad said: “This is the highest-ever priced bidding in the history of Hyderabad. This bidding usually takes place at the beginning of the new series, as each series has 9,999 numbers. Around 40,000 vehicles are registered here each year. During the auspicious or the festival season, the number of registrations accelerates.”
