With the demand growing for fancy car numbers, the public vehicles department has kept those starting from one to 20 of each series and numbers having same digits like 1111 or 6666 for sale.

“It came to our notice that a growing number of people are aspiring for these registration numbers. Anybody can now buy them after paying extra fees,” said Additional Chief Secretary (Transport) Sumantra Choudhury.

As per provisions of WB Motor Vehicles Act, registration numbers of each series are kept aside for government cars since 1989. The officials of Motor Vehicles Department said these numbers would now be treated as “reserved for sale”.

According to the rate chart, the number 0001 was the costliest at Rs 5 lakh. Registration numbers between 0002 and 0011 will cost Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2 lakh for numbers between 0012 to 0020 and those of the same digits.

According to M Kamran, Director, Public Vehicles Department, on an average, 120 new car owners in the city applied for fancy numbers per month. With the present rate of 2,400 new cars being registered each month, a particular series can be exhausted in about four to five months, he said.