In an auction of fancy car registration numbers for the PB-65-N series on Friday, the number '0013' attracted the highest bid of Rs 92,000. In the last auction for PB-65-L series, 1313, which might be considered doubly unlucky, fetched Rs 1.4 lakh, while 0013 was sold for Rs 70,000. Though most vehicle owners avoid number 13, last few years have seen the most fierce bidding for it in auctions here. Even single-digit numbers have not been able to attract such interest. Speaking to TOI, Mohali district transport officer (DTO) Karan Singh said, ''People are no longer worried about number 13. Some even believe it to be luckier than other numbers.'' He added, ''Earlier we did not include 0013 or 1313 in the auction. Then some people approached us as they wanted the number. We quickly realized that auction of the number could yield significant amounts and thus decided to include it in the auctions of October 2010 and March.'' Lalit Sinha, one of the unsuccessful bidders for the number at Friday's the auction said, ''Our family astrologer had said that number 13 would prove lucky for me. So I decided to bid for it. However, others bid higher than me. I will be back next year to get this number.'' Successful bidder Amarjot Singh, who got 0013 for his SUV, said, ''I do not believe in superstitions and don't think one number is luckier than the other. My reason for getting it is that my son was born on June 13 and so I wanted the number for my new SUV.''
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