BENGALURU: A vehicle sporting a unique number always catches the attention of others on the road. So when the transport department organised a bid for fancy numbers in Chikkamagaluru district on Monday, a Mangaluru-based businessman paid Rs 2.77 lakh to get his vehicle registered with the number KA-661.
The transport department organised the bid for its latest RTO series, KA-66, at Tarikere in Chikkamagaluru district. The response was, however, poor with just three applicants for fancy numbers.
According to the officials from the transport department, the demand was less because the registration was in Chikkamagluru district. Maruti Sambrani, Joint Commissioner, said, “If it was in Bengaluru or some other city, the demand would have been higher. In previous cases when we opened a new series for registration, special numbers have been bought for as much as Rs 5 lakh.”
An official said, “Normally, there will be a minimum of 15 applications. This time we received only three applications. The three applicants had paid DD of Rs 75,000. One applicant withdrew from the bid when KA-66 1 was sold. We returned the DD amount paid by the applicant,” mentioned officials.
Another applicant got the registration number KA-66 5555 for Rs 76,000. “As he had already paid Rs 75,000 DD, he got the number for Rs 76,000. The rush would have been five times more if these numbers were released in Bengaluru, Mysuru or Coorg series,” said another official.