THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:A pharmacy owner in Thiruvananthapuram paid a record Rs 18 lakh for the registration number ‘KL 01 CB 1’ in an auction held on Monday.
The auction was open for owners of three luxury cars and a bike, bidding with a base price of Rs 1 lakh.
In the end, K S Balagopal, the owner of Devi Pharmaceuticals and a resident of Kowdiyar, clinched the number for his Toyota Land Cruiser (on-the-road price of over Rs 1.7 crore) for Rs 18 lakh.
“This is by far a record in terms of money paid during the auction of fancy numbers,” said Thiruvananthapuram RTO B Muralikrishnan.
Monday was among the busiest days for the RTO as 27 fancy numbers were put for auction. There were 210 applications and 67 applicants for the ‘CB’ series.
The registration number KL 01 CA 9999 was auctioned at Rs 2 lakh and KL 01 CB 9 went for Rs 1,15,000. The bidders had the right to increase their bid amount by Rs 500.
The RTO in Thiruvananthapuram received Rs 24,93,500 from the auction.
The procedure was supervised by Deputy Transport Commissioner (South Zone) C K Ashokan. Assistant Transport Commissioners K Padmakumar, enforcement RTO P M Shaji controlled the proceedings. The auction was video-recorded to rule out malpractice. Transport Commissioner S Anandakrishnan had given a detailed instruction to the officers to avoid malpractices and cartel formation among bidders.
The auction came to life after KL 01 CA 1 went for just Rs 2,000. In 2016, KL 01 BX was auctioned at Rs 10.01 lakh and KL 01 BY at Rs 7.5 lakh.