Chandigarh, March 7 -- Can't put a price on passion, is what former Chandigarh mayor and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Davesh Moudgil had to say as he walked away with fancy number CH01-DD-0001 after paying a whopping Rs.53.8 lakh in an e-auction conducted by the Registering and Licensing Authority (RLA) on Friday. Moudgil has purchased the VIP number for his Toyota Fortuner Legender, which costs around Rs.50 lakh.

This is the highest-ever bid recorded for a vehicle registration number since auctioning of fancy numbers began in Chandigarh in the 2002.

The city's craze for fancy numbers is evident from the fact that the RLA makes roughly Rs.12 crore every year by auctioning fancy numbers. Each auction fetches around Rs.3 cro...