Bhubaneswar, June 30: The state transport department will launch online auctioning of fancy vehicle numbers from tomorrow. The department today issued a notification to discontinue the existing practice of reservation of fancy numbers through manual mode from July 1.

According to the notification, the transport department has identified 61 fancy numbers between 1 and 9999, which would be auctioned online. The minimum base price for 1 and 9 has been kept at Rs 1 lakh while the minimum base price for numbers (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 786, 1111, 1234, 7777 and 9999) has been kept at Rs 60,000.

Similarly, there are 11 other numbers which would be auctioned at a base price of Rs 40,000 and the remaining 35 fancy numbers would be auctioned at Rs 10,000 for two wheelers and at Rs 20,000 for other vehicles.

"The applicant offering the highest fee would be allotted with the number on production of the vehicle with other documents within 30 days from the filing of online application. The reservation fees paid by unsuccessful applicants would be returned to them within seven days after the auction process is over," said transport commissioner-cum-chairman of State Transport Authority Chandra Sekhar Kumar.

Transport officials said that the software for the e-auction of fancy numbers, which has been designed by National Informatics Centre, would be introduced tomorrow. At present, a person has to pay Rs 10,000 to get a fancy number for a two-wheeler, while the cost is Rs 20,000 for a four-wheeler. The process of obtaining a fancy number has so far been on first-come-first-served basis.

Transport officials said that the e-auction would bring transparency is allotment of fancy numbers. "Applicants often alleged that people wielding clout in the motor vehicles department were being allotted prime numbers. The new system will also ensure that touts and agents are not be able to fleece the fancy number seekers," said an official of transport department.