Visakhapatnam: The Visakhapatnam regional transport office has decided to sell 50 fancy numbers through public auction from August 16 to 19 due to technical glitches in the usual online bidding process. RTO officials expect a huge turnout for the auction, as fancy numbers are being allocated after a gap of one year. The department is switching over to the public auction system due to convenience and prospect of generating revenue. The delay in the online auction has hit the revenue of RTOs in Visakhapatnam region as over 1,000 fancy numbers are yet to be sold in the state.
“Fancy numbers such as 1, 9, 99, 999, 786, 9999, 1111 among others in AP 31DF, AP31 DH and AP 31 DG series are on offer in the Visakhapatnam region. We expect more revenue for the RTOs located at Vizag, Gajuwaka and Anakapalle through offline bids,” said deputy transport commissioner S. Venkateswara Rao.
The minimum deposit for the fancy numbers is Rs 50,000. In case there is higher demand for certain numbers, RTA officials will allocate the number by conducting a sealed cover auction, Mr Rao said, and added that the auction will continue till August 19. Meanwhile, transport officials said that the offline auction for fancy registration numbers may create a rift between the ruling TD leaders and Opposition leaders in the region. However, the transport officials did not rule out political influence to shift from online auction to offline one. Demand for fancy numbers such as 1, 9, 999, 666, 7777 and 9999 is more among the politicians compared with other fancy numbers such as 111, 222, and 333.
