Fancy vehicle numbers fetch Rs 6 crore in six months in Ludhiana

Nitin Jain

Advertisement

Ludhiana, July 27

In what appears to be signs of cash-rich people spending no holds barred on their status symbol, the fancy vehicle registration numbers have fetched a whopping close to Rs 6 crore in Ludhiana during the first six months of the year, official data has revealed.

With an average of almost Rs 1 crore per month collection from auction/allotment of what are considered as VIP registration numbers for motor vehicles, the Regional Transport Office here has logged a jump of almost 43 per cent in the revenue collection from this head this year as compared to the previous year.

Regional Transport Officer (RTO) Randeep Singh told The Tribune here on Saturday that a sum of Rs 5,82,77,500 was collected from the auction and allotment of 5,750 fancy and choice vehicle registration numbers between January 1 and June 30 this year.

This, he said, was Rs 1,74,33,500 increase, accounting for 42.68 per cent, than Rs 4,08,44,000 fetched from the auction and allotment of 4,202 fancy/choice registration numbers for vehicles in Ludhiana during the corresponding period in 2023. The craze for getting a VIP number on vehicles in the industrial capital of the state could be gauged from the fact that fancy number PB10JK0001 had fetched Rs 16.45 lakh, against the reserve price of Rs 2.5 lakh, which was the highest bid during this year so far.

Similarly, another VIP registration number PB10JJ0001 was auctioned for Rs 14,26,500, PB10JM0001 for Rs 12,21,500, PB10JL0001 for Rs 11,01,500, and PB10JL0005, with a reserve price of Rs 25,000, had gone for Rs 5 lakh.

“It looks good when your vehicle sports a fancy number,” shared Amrita, who had bought one for her high-end SUVs recently. Another such bidder Raghav Singhania feels that the fancy/ choice number of his Mercedes E-Class gives him a VIP feeling.

The RTO said registration numbers of choice in each series were put to e-auction through centralised portal www.parivahan.gov.in of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

While the reserve price for registration number 0001 is Rs 2.5 lakh, it is Rs 25,000 for numbers 0002 to 0009. For numbers 0010 to 0099, the reserve price is Rs 12,500 and the range goes down up to Rs 5,000, as per specified registration numbers notified by the state government.

However, the fee for any registration number of choice (out of turn) other than prescribed numbers, within the district is Rs 5,000 and for outside the district is Rs 10,000. Pertinently, a whopping 52,291 new vehicles were registered in Ludhiana during the first six months of this year.

This was the highest registration rate since 2018 in the state’s biggest and largest district headquarters, in terms of area and population. While 79,000 new vehicles were registered here in 2023, the count was 70,000 in 2022, 48,000 in 2021 and 2020, 77,000 in 2019, and 73,000 in 2018. If one takes account of this year’s figures, almost 291 new vehicles were hitting roads in Ludhiana daily and on an average, over 8,715 vehicles were registered here every month in 2024.

As many as 52,291 new vehicles registered here during the first six months of this year were 18,411, accounting for 54.34 per cent more than 33,880 vehicle registrations done during the corresponding period in 2023. A maximum of 31,785 motorcycles/ scooters were registered between January 1 and June 30, followed by 11,734 motor cars.

What is fancy number?

A fancy number, which is also known as a VIP number, is issued for all types of vehicles, including cars and motorcycles. People spend lakhs of rupees on such numbers to give a unique identity to their vehicles. The fancy numbers can be 0001, 9999, 1111, 4444, 0786 and similar numbers.

A fancy number is allotted based on an e-auction. Vehicle owners have to log in to the centralised portal to bid online for getting the number of their choice. Successful bidders have to make an additional payment at the RTO to get a fancy/ VIP number for your vehicles.

Ludhiana leads

The vehicle registrations in the state were maximum in Ludhiana following which the workload here was also the highest. “The last six months of 2024 had recorded the maximum registrations of new vehicles during the past three years,” RTO Randeep Singh said while adding that efforts were being made to ensure no pendency despite excess workload.