The companies which bagged the contracts are the Times of India group company Bennett, Coleman & Co, Ltd, the Zee group-backed New Media Broadcasting, the Reliance-promoted Observer Network, India Today's parent company Living Media, the Ispat group-backed Music Broadcast, Nimbus Communcations, Radio Mid Day, Dream Radio, Hindustan Broadcasting, and Millennium Mumbai Broadcast.

The lone frequency for Madurai went to New Media Broadcasting for Rs 5.55 crore. The minimum reserve fee for the city was Rs 50 lakh.

After auctioning 76 frequencies in 26 cities, the information and broadcasting ministry's licence-fee kitty has swelled to Rs 347.52 crore. The period of licence would be for ten years from the date of issue ofoperational licence by the Wireless Coordination Committee. The licence-fee amount is valid for the first year of operation with a provision of 15 per cent increase every year.

Earlier Hyderabad had pipped both Delhi and Bangalore in the bidding race with a fee of Rs 7.72 crore for each of the three frequencies on offer. Delhi follows closely with at Rs 7.12 crore where 11 frequencies were on offer. Bangalore is pegged at Rs 6.68 crore for five frequencies while the single frequency for Chandigarh's has gone for Rs 6.65 crore.

After the current round of bidding, the Zee group outfit has increased its tally to 16 stations across the country. This is followed by Bennett Coleman & Co with 10 centres. Observer Network has in all bagged 7 stations.

Government has offered 140 channels to private sector in 40 cities. The bidding process for remaining centres with 16 frequencies on offer will be taken up on March 14 and March 15. Mysore, Nagpur, Panaji, Patna, Pune and Raipur will be up for grab on Tuesday. OnWednesday Rajkot, Shillong, Trichy, Tirunelveli, Trivandrum and Varanasi will be on the bidding block.

In the earlier auctions, the Government finalised the list of companies to operate FM channels in several major cities, including Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Calcutta, Bhubaneswar, Bhopal, Agra, Allahabad, Aurangabad and Ahmedabad. The government on Saturday awarded contracts to six companies to set up FM radio stations in Jaipur, Jallandhar, Jamnagar, Kanpur, Lucknow and Ludhiana.