0001 fetches Rs 5.25 lakh at e-auction

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 22

The much-sought-after number 0001 was sold for Rs 5,25,000 at an e-auction of the CH 01 BR series for vehicles, which concluded this evening. In the last auction, 0001 was sold for Rs 5,13,000.

The Registering and Licensing Authority earned approximately Rs 49 lakh from the e-auction of 260 numbers.

The owner of Raffles Educity India Pvt Ltd, Swarn Singh Sandhu, bought 0001 while participating in the e-auction from Canada. Parampal, an employee of the company, said the number was bought for a Porsche car worth over Rs 1.50 crore. He said the managing director of the company was at present in Canada. The number 0005 fetched the second-highest price of Rs 2.62 lakh. Other numbers which fetched high prices were 0050 (Rs 2.05 lakh), 0002 (Rs 1.51 lakh), 9999 (Rs 1.46 lakh), 5000 (Rs 1.42 lakh), 0007 (Rs 1.36 lakh) and 0036 (Rs 1.10 lakh). The number 0009 was sold for Rs 1.30 lakh. Interestingly, the numbers 0004, 0006, 0008, 0009  and 0010  failed to  find a place among the top 10 numbers in terms of prices.

The reserve price for 0001 was fixed at Rs 50,000 while the reserve price for other vanity numbers up to 10 was Rs 30,000.  The 0001 number witnessed a stiff competition among the claimants till the   closing of the e-auction.

The successful bidders will be required to get their vehicles registered as well as deposit the balance bid amount within one month from the date of the e-auction.