If you can afford the latest luxury sports utility vehicle (suv), you can indulge in procuring a fancy number for your vehicle and flaunting it in style.
Pharmaceutical distributor, K.S. Balagopal proved it right by walking away with his choicest registration number KL-01-CB-1 after paying ₹19 lakh for his Land cruiser in the auction held by Motor Vehicles Department on Monday for the listed fancy numbers in the “CA” and “CB” series. Hid bid created a record in the history of MVD auction.
Mr. Balagopal, a resident of Kowdiar, secured the fancy number for the record ₹19 lakh leaving behind Subhagar Vasudevan, Ranju Kumar and Abdul Karim in the auction held at the office of the Regional Transport Officer (RTO), Thiruvananthapuram.
In fact, the pharmaceutical distributor got the registration number for ₹12 lakh as other two bidders withdrew once the amount touched ₹12 lakh. Ranju Kumar, who vied with others for the fancy number for his motorcycle, withdrew initially.
RTO B. Muralikrishna told The Hindu that Mr. Balagopal voluntarily raised the amount to ₹18 lakh creating an all-time record. The minimum amount for participating in the auction was ₹1 lakh and the losers will get the deposited money back from the MVD.
Abdul Karim, a leading car accessories dealer, was not lucky, as he lost the race for the third time in the auction, the official said. The heavy demand for the registration mark surprised MVD officials who videographed the auction proceedings and tightened the norms to ensure transparency as the number KL-01-CA-1 was bagged by NRI businessman Yusuf Ali for ₹2,000.
Till date, the highest amount fetched for a fancy number in the State was ₹16.15 lakh for Kl-08-BL-1 in Thrissur. The auction was a windfall for the MVD, as it fetched ₹24.93 lakh on a single day in the auction of 28 fancy numbers in the KL-O1- CB series till 369.
The KL-01-CB-9 went for ₹1.15 lakh and KL-01-CA 9999 for ₹2 lakh. The auction proceedings were surpervised by Deputy Transport Commissioner, South Zone, C.K. Ashokan, Assistant Transport Commissioner K. Padmakumar, and RTO, Enforcement, P.M. Shaji.
Last year, KL-01-BX-1 was auctioned at ₹10.01 lakh, KL-01-BY-1 at ₹7.5 lakh, and KL-01-BZ-1 was auctioned for just ₹6,000 in the capital.
