The fancy number 'CH-01-AT-0001' went for a whopping Rs 910,000 at an auction of new vehicular series, 'CH-01-AT' held here on Friday.
Raman Mittal, managing director of International Tractors limited bought the fancy number '0001' for his Mercedes car. His representatives were present during the auction to bid for the vanity number.
The Registering and licensing Authority (RlA) conducted the auction at its Sector 17 office. In all, there were 48 fancy numbers for auction. And, RlA earned a total amount of Rs3,867,100 from the auction.
During the auction, vanity number '0003' went for Rs4 lakh, '0005' for Rs3.73 lakh, '0009' for Rs3.51 lakh, '0002' for Rs1.81 lakh and '0004' for Rs1.91 lakh.
It was for the first time that fancy numbers '0006', '0007' and '0008' received single bids.
An RlA official said the number CH-01-AT-0001 fetched the highest amount of Rs9,10,000 and the second highest number bided was 'CH-01-AQ-0003' for Rs4,00,000.
The department had received 313 applications; of which 178 were single applications. One hundred and thirty-five applicants participated in the auction to bid for 48 numbers while other numbers were given on reserve price.
Earlier, the RlA had to extend the booking date for fancy numbers in 'CH-01-AT' series due to poor response. After holding two rounds of auction for previous vehicular series 'CH-01-AS', the RlA had earned over Rs 60 lakh (approximately) by auctioning over 100 fancy numbers. In the auction, vanity number 'CH01-AS-0001 fetched Rs8 lakh.
Fancy number 'CH01-AS-0009' had fetched the second highest bid of Rs 4.25 lakh and 'CH 01-AS-0100' had gone for Rs 3.55 lakh, the third highest bid during the auction.
In the past, the RlA had even cancelled the auction of 'CH01AR' due to poor response.