HYDERABAD: It’s not every day that the Road Transport Authority (RTA) here makes over Rs 30 lakh in just a few hours by giving out vehicle registration numbers. But Monday was one of those days, thanks to the introduction of the new FE and FF series, RTA officials told this newspaper on Tuesday.
The auction of fancy registration numbers saw bidders battle it out and end up spending more on their number plates than many people in the city would spend on buying a new car.
By the end of the entire exercise, officials announced that the highest bid, a massive Rs 10 lakh, was raised for the number ‘TS 09 FE 9999’. The bidder was NSL Properties, and the number is all set to be proudly displayed on a Toyota Land Cruiser. Another fancy number — TS 09 FF 0001 — was bagged by Fern Hill Hotels Private Limited for as much as Rs 6.95 lakh.
Though that might seem like a huge amount, it’s just a fraction of the cost of the vehicle it will be on. The car is a Lexus 570, which cost its owner a whopping Rs 2.65 crore. Meanwhile, another number auctioned by the RTA, TS 09 FF 0099, is set to be flaunted on an Audi Q3, as the vehicle’s owner, Emergence Agrinovo, picked it up for as much as Rs 2,78,000. The car, meanwhile, is worth a massive Rs 63 lakh. These and other high-value auctions of registration numbers earned the RTA as much as Rs 30 lakh in a day.