Premium numbers on Haryana Govt vehicles to be withdrawn

Geetanjali Gayatri

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Chandigarh, May 24

Premium numbers on government vehicles in Haryana will soon be withdrawn and made available to the public. Numbers of a new “GV series”, exclusively created, will replace these “VIP numbers” on government vehicles.

New GV series

From now on, all government vehicles will have numbers of the ‘GV series’. Also, numbers 1-1000 even in this series will not be allocated to any vehicle. Only numbers from 1001 to 9999 will be available for allotment. — Navdeep Singh Virk, Principal Secretary, Transport

“There are about 1,000 such numbers that will be made available to the public once new numbers are issued under the GV series to government vehicles. The public can bid for the numbers in the auction of premium numbers which is held by the Transport Department,” Transport Minister Mool Chand Sharma said, adding that the reserve price of these numbers alone would come to over Rs 25 crore.

Sources said that there are 16,000 government vehicles of which 170 vehicles have the premium “0001 number” in different series. This number has a reserve price of Rs 5 lakh which has been sold for Rs 12 lakh in previous auctions in the series that have gone under the hammer.

Sources add that there are nearly 1,000 vehicles with premium numbers in the government fleet across the state. In addition, there are other vehicle numbers which would fetch a price, if made available. The Transport Department is hopeful of earning over Rs 50 crore through their auction given the high demand for “VIP numbers”.

The minister said that he had cleared the file for withdrawal of preferential numbers from government vehicles and the process would begin shortly.

“From now on, all government vehicles will have numbers of the ‘GV series’. Also, numbers 1-1000 even in this series will not be allocated to any vehicle. Only numbers from 1001 to 9999 will be available for allotment. We hope to complete the entire process of issuing new registration numbers under the GV series in three to four months. The ball was set rolling after the Chief Minister approved the department’s proposal. The minister has given a go-ahead for the same after the GV series was notified yesterday,” Principal Secretary, Transport, Navdeep Singh Virk, said.