Telangana: RTA earns Rs 55 crore through auction of fancy numbers in 8 months

Officials expect to earn about Rs 75 crore through registrations by the end of this year as against Rs 72 crore earned by the RTA last year

Hyderabad: Vehicle owners in Hyderabad are clearly in love with fancy registration numbers! The craze for that unique registration number for two and four-wheelers has fuelled the collections for the Regional Transport Authority (RTA).

The RTA offices in Hyderabad, Rangareddy and Medchal-Malkajgiri districts have earned an estimated Rs 55 crore through auction of various fancy numbers until August this year. The RTA officials are now projecting their total earnings for this year at Rs 75 crore.

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To get their lucky or favourite fancy numbers, citizens are willing to spend more than they spent to buy the vehicles itself. Especially, before the festive season, the Transport authorities collected Rs 53.9 crore through auction of fancy numbers in Hyderabad, Rangareddy and Medchal – Malkajgiri districts.

Officials expect to earn about Rs 75 crore through registrations by the end of this year as against Rs 72 crore earned by the RTA last year.

Fancy numbers including 9999, 0001, 0007 and 0009 are the most preferred numbers by vehicle owners.

In the auction held so far this year, number 9999 has been acquired for Rs 21.6 lakh at the RTA Central Zone office in Khairatabad. It is learnt that the same number was acquired for about Rs 12.1 lakh by a motorist at the Kondapur RTA office and acquired for Rs 9.9 lakh by a motorist at Malakpet RTA. The highest bid for 9999 number was Rs 10.5 lakh recorded at Khairatabad.

It was also observed that most of the fancy vehicle registration numbers were bought by real estate firms, jewelry firms and other business groups from the city.

A senior RTA official said that many people consider number 9 as a lucky number and spend any amount to own it. Officials say that some motorists are also more interested in the numbers below 9. The biddings are also being received in huge numbers for registration numbers like 02 and 1223. The reason for this is that motorists are considering their children’s birthdays or any special days falling on those dates. This bid for these numbers can sometimes range between Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000.