A liquor shop at Peda Waltair was bid for Rs.4.72 crore – the highest in the city.
In all, the Excise Department finalised bids for 56 IMFL shops in the city for an amount of Rs.140.37 crore as against last year's Rs.73.68 crore – registering almost a 90 per cent growth. A shop at Seethammadhara was bid for Rs.4.33 crore, the second highest in the city.
The opening of bids for the rural areas in the district continued till late in the evening at the Swarnabharati Indoor Stadium amid unprecedented bandobust.
Excise officials said that they were expecting Rs.500 crore in bids for the 406 shops during the current excise year.
A shop at Narsipatnam fetched Rs.1.3 crore. In the Maoist-hit Sileru in the agency area, a shop was bid for Rs.83 lakhs. In the city, one K. Appa Rao, who bid for a shop at Pendurthy had quoted Rs.66,66,666. He lost it by Rs.3 to one Raju.
During the bidding, heavy competition was recorded. In most cases, bids were also presented by women and for most shops, five to 10 people formed into a group to bid for various shops located in densely populated areas.
