The auction, held at Phuket Rajabhat University on Saturday and Sunday from (Mar 3-4), raised B21,747,998, PLTO staff confirmed today (Mar 5).
Up for auction were a total of 301 car-registration plates with the Thai letters “KorWor” (กว).
As is tradition, the top-priced item to sell were the licence plates bearing the numbers “9999”, with KorWor 9999 being sold for B999,999.
Licence plates KorWor 8888 fetched B650,000, with KorWor 1111 selling for B500,000. Both KorWor 888 and KorWor 999 each sold for B410,000.
Many of the special plates, which can be used only on personal vehicles registered to carry not more than seven people, sold for much less, with many fetching only B24,000 to B25,000 a set.
PLTO Chief Banyat pointed out that this was the 14th time the PLTO had held an auction of special licences plates, altogether raising a total of B238,495,500 for the Road Safety Fund.
Present at the opening ceremony on Saturday was Land Transport Department Deputy Director-General
Kamol Buranapong, who noted, “Road accidents cause loss of life and property, which damage the country’s economy and society.
“The Land Transport Department as one of the agencies that is responsible for taking action to prevent this, so we have these auctions in order to raise funds for the Road Safety Fund.
“The money raised goes towards supporting and promoting road-safety activities such as the road-safety campaigns during the New Year and Songkran holidays, and buy equipment to assist people with disabilities suffered from road accidents,” Mr Kamol said.
At an event held only a week ago to promote the auction, Phuket Vice Governor Snith Sriwihok on Feb 24 handed over prosthetic limbs and other forms of assistance to victims of road accidents in Phuket. The prosthetic limbs were provided through funds raised by the Road Safety Fund.
The auction held last year raised a total of B26mn for licences plates bearing the Thai letters KorLor (กล). (See story here.)
Additional reporting by Eakkapop Thongtub