Cuttack, May 6: People are making a beeline for regional transport office to cash in on the delay the state government is making to roll out online auction of fancy and VIP registration numbers.
Though the government had earlier planned to start the online process from January this year, the ambitious project is yet to take off.
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. Once the online auction starts, the base price for the fancy numbers will be Rs 60,000 and can go up to Rs 1 lakh.
"Nowadays, on an average 70 people are turning up every month to book number plates, while earlier only 40 to 50 used to apply for the same," said Diptiranjan Patra, RTO, Cuttack.
Patra said that the department was following the 'first-come first-serve' procedure while allotting the fancy numbers to the applicants.
Sources in the transport office said there had been a sharp increase in the demand for fancy numbers more because of the delay in the implementation of the online auction process. People are trying to cash in on this time as once the online process starts, the price would shoot up.
Official sources in the state transport department said as a dedicated bank mechanism was being prepared to debit successful and refund unsuccessful transactions, there had been a delay in implementation of the online auction process in the state. This is true not only for Cuttack, but also other parts of the state.
Transport officials said that software for the e-auction of fancy numbers designed by National Informatics Centre, Delhi is on a trial run. Once the trial is successful, the software will be integrated with the private bank through which monetary transactions will be made. The entire process is likely to take a month or so, said a transport department official.
However, other necessary modalities needed to start the online auction are already complete. The e-auction will ensure transparency and at the same time generate more revenue.
"A lot of my friends have easily got their preferred numbers in the last one month and hence I had purchased a new car so that I can also get a single digit number before the online auction of fancy numbers starts," said Prakash Sahu, an applicant.
The state government has also amended Orissa Motor Vehicle Rules 1993 to facilitate the e-auction.
Single digit numbers between 1 and 9 and 786 are usually in high demand and have been categorised as fancy numbers by the transport department.
Besides, double digit numbers such as 11, 22, 33 till 99 and three-digit numbers, including 111 to 999, are also getting preference.
According to the new rules, the transport department from time to time will classify the registration numbers that will be reserved as fancy numbers and notify the same through local newspapers. However, the minimum bidding price for non-prime numbers such as 1234 will be Rs 10,000 for two-wheelers and Rs 20,000 for four-wheelers. For special numbers, the minimum bidding price would be Rs 1 lakh and Rs 60,000 for other single digit and double digit number and series.
