Vanity number 0001 fetches Rs 7,01,000

Ramkrishan Upadhyay 

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 10 

The demonetisation drive seems to have had no effect on the auction of the top vanity number 0001, as it fetched Rs 7,01,000 during the auction of the new vehicle series (CH01 BK) which ended today. However, it resulted in a dip in the overall revenue from the total auction.       

This time, the number 0001 was sold for Rs 2,08,000 higher than in the last auction. 

The other vanity numbers of the series failed to attract buyers as most of them failed to touch the Rs 1 lakh mark. 

This time, only the number 0009 was able to fetch Rs 2,03,000 from the auction while all the numbers below 10 were sold within Rs one lakh.

The Registration and Licensing Authority (RLA) received Rs 35.23 lakh from the auction which is lower than the amount of Rs 52 lakh approximately it received in the last auction. 

This was the fourth e-auction for the choice numbers.

The previous one was held in September for the CH01 BJ series when the 0001 number was sold for Rs 4,93,000.

As compared to the  previous auctions, enthusiasm for the number 0001 has been increasing among the applicants after the introduction of vanity numbers. 

In the previous e-auction for the series (CH01 BH),0001 was only sold for Rs 89,000 which was the poorest response the RLA has got so far. 

The number 0001 used to fetch Rs 8 to 10 lakh in the open auctions held in 2015. 

The Chandigarh Administration has made Aadhaar card mandatory for taking part in the e-auction of vehicle registration numbers to check outsiders from getting the vanity numbers by using a fake identity. Earlier, the Aadhaar card was not mandatory for taking part in the e-auction. Successful bidders will be required to get their vehicles registered as well as deposit the balance bid amount within a month from the date of auction.