RTA earns ₹37.15L from fancy number auction, Balakrishna bids ₹7.75L for '0001'

Hyderabad: The Regional Transport Authority (RTA) earned ₹37.15 lakh through the auction of fancy vehicle registration numbers , with prominent Tollywood actor and TDP MLA Nandamuri Balakrishna alone bidding ₹7.75 lakh for the coveted ‘0001' number.

RTA officials said several sought-after numbers—such as 0009, 9999, 0005, 0007, 0019, and 0099—across various state and district codes were put up for auction. On Saturday, ‘0001' emerged as the highest bid, followed by ‘0009', which was acquired by a Hyderabad-based software company.

The number ‘0099' fetched ₹4.75 lakh, while ‘9999' went for ₹99,999. The least expensive among the set was ‘0019', which was sold for ₹60,000. Officials noted that most of the winning bids were made by companies registering the numbers under their corporate names.