The inaugural e-auction helped the Delhi government to mop up a total of Rs 72.4 lakh with a total of 29 bids. Dwarikesh Sugar Industries Limited put the maximum bid of Rs. 12.5 lakh for the number 0001 against the reserve price of Rs. 5 lakh.
Next to 0001, the registration number 0009 was sold for Rs 8.25 lakh, while 0006 went for Rs 3 lakh and 0786 for Rs 2.1 lakh.
Apart from these numbers, 0036 was sold for Rs 2.05 lakh, 0111 for Rs 1.35 lakh, 0200 for Rs 1.05 lakh, 0222 for Rs 1 lakh, 0300 for Rs 1.10 lakh, 0777 for Rs 1.40 lakh, 0900 for Rs 1 lakh, 0999 for Rs 1.25 lakh, 1000 for Rs 2 lakh, 1111 for Rs 2.25 lakh, 2222 for Rs 1.15 lakh, 7777 for Rs 2.60 lakh and 9999 for Rs 3.20 lakh.
The Transport department had hoped to earn at least Rs 1 crore, after 127 people had applied for the online auction.
Though the bidding took place for around 140 VIP numbers that had been classified into four categories, officials said most of the bidding was for a few “favourite numbers”.
“The response shows that people don’t mind spending money to buy these numbers. Once people get to know about these results, I am sure it would generate more revenue for the transport department. We would hold another auction of registration numbers next month,” said Special Commissioner (Transport), Kuldeep Singh Ganger.