Record India bid: Frenzy for fancy vehicle numbers peaks in Haryana, HR88B8888 fetches Rs 1.17 crore

Haryana’s Badhra subdivision in Charkhi Dadri district fetched the highest bid in the country today, with vehicle registration number 'HR88B8888' fetching a whopping Rs 1.17 crore.

The transport authorities have not disclosed the name of the person who won the bid.  The bid, which stood at Rs 1.03 lakh at 4.20 pm, rose dramatically before closing at Rs 1.17 crore at 5 pm.

A total of 45 persons took part in the bid which was conducted by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways on its web portal https://fancy.parivahan.gov.in/fancy/faces/public/show_final_result.xhtml.

The base price for the bid was fixed at Rs 50,000, with Rs 10,000 as the security money and Rs 1,000 as the registration fee. The auction of VIP or fancy numbers is held every week and each bid is closed on Wednesday at 5 pm.

The registration code 'HR' stands for Haryana while '88' is the Regional Transport Office (RTO) number representing Badhra subdivision in Charkhi Dadri district of the state. One of the bidders said that the number HR88B8888 looked like a string of 888888888 even though there was one 'B' in between.

Notably, in August this year, 0001 number CH01DA fetched the highest bid of Rs 36.43 lakh.

Atul Kumar, Haryana Transport Commissioner, when contacted by The Tribune, said, “The bidding process is automated and in online mode. If the number has fetched over Rs 1 crore, it is a big amount. I cannot confirm or deny this right now because there is no staff available in the office to do so. But, this is an online process and the web portal furnishing the information is deemed as correct."