RTO gets richer, offers registration number of choice

The most sought after numbers were 1, 111, 999, 7777 among others, RTO officials said adding one vehicle owner paid a whopping Rs 3.33 lakh to get the number '1' for his car.

The RTO has earned an additional revenue of Rs 13.24 lakh with over 400 vehicle owners participating in the bid to get a number of choice for their new vehicles, Regional Transport Officer K R Patel said.

RTO had invited bids for the new series GJ-6 ED. A committee set up for the purpose went through the bids and finalised allotment of numbers yesterday, he said.

A vehicle owner paid Rs 60,000 for number '999' for his vehicle while two others got number '111' for Rs 25,555 and '7777' for Rs 24,444.

The fetish for a particular registration number vary from numerology to sentimental value to superstition to plain visual appeal. But the craze is  growing, so much so that some times people are ready to spend as much on the number as they do on buying a vehicle or even more, according to RTO officials.