HYDERABAD: In a record, the five Regional Transport Authorities (RTAs) in the city recorded a revenue of Rs 124.20 crore from the vehicle registration of special category numbers in the year 2023–24. This represents a nearly 5% increase from the previous year’s earnings of Rs 118 crore in 2022–23. In FY 2022–23, the revenue from fancy number registrations saw a 37.73% increase from the Rs 85.67 crore recorded in 2021–22.
An estimated 13,000 fancy numbers were sold during the last fiscal year. The highest bidder at the auction was Prime Source Global Services Pvt Ltd, which paid Rs 21.6 lakh for the number ‘TS 09 GD 9999’, registered with the Khairatabad RTO.
Officials said 500-600 cars are registered every day in the city, translating to around 2 lakh per year. “There are several reasons for the groups, mostly businessmen, realtors and other leading figures, to purchase special category numbers, often to keep up with the VIP culture or due to superstitious beliefs. People also buy these fancy numbers for sentimental reasons. Some believe that a particular number — especially those containing ‘6’ or ‘9’ — is lucky for them or similar to their date of birth,” M Purushottam Reddy, Regional Transport Officer (RTO), Khairatabad, told TNIE.
Rangareddy beats Hyd
Besides Khairatabad, the city has four more RTOs at Malakpet, Tolichowki, Bahadurpura and Secunderabad. In terms of overall earnings for 2023–24, Rangareddy district reported the highest revenue generation with Rs 1,688.78 crore, a 10.8% increase from the previous year’s Rs 1,523.66 crore. Rangareddy surpassed Hyderabad, which usually leads in earnings for the transport department through RTAs. Overall, the department earned Rs 6,990 crore in 2023–24, reflecting a 9.38% increase from the Rs 6,390 crore earned in 2022–23.