NEW DELHI: Even as Varanasi became the next city to enter the Rs 10 crore club, hope continued to centre around 10 cities that have crossed the Rs 6 crore figure in bids.

While Varanasi marched into Rs 10 crore club with Rs 10.11 crore, Kohlapur was close behind with Rs 9.44 crore though cities like Kanpur, Rajkot, Amritsar and Aurangabad do not seem to be far behind.  

On the 24th day in the e-auction for the first batch of FM Phase III cities, the cumulative provisional winning price showed a marginal rise to Rs 1143 crore at the end of the 96th round.

The number of provisional winning channels and cities remained the same as yesterday: 94 channels in 56 cities, but the total bids surpassed the cumulative reserve price by Rs 684.1 crore or 149.1 per cent against the aggregate reserve price of about Rs 459 crore. 

The cumulative provisional winning price has thus risen over the total reserve price of the first batch of 135 FM channels in 69 existing cities - Rs 550.18 crore – by Rs 592.8 crore or 107.7 per cent.

The cumulative winning price is exclusive of the migration fee, which will take the total revenue even higher. Information and Broadcasting Ministry source also reiterated that the notice inviting auction was clear that the e-auction will continue as long as bids are received for any of the 135 channels. This included the 13 cities for which no bids have come.

The Auction Activity Requirement rose to 100 per cent after the 59th round on 14 August, after being 90 per cent after the 37th round on 7 August.

The 13 cities bids for which no bids have been received are: Asansol, Gulbarga, Mangalore, Mysore, Puducherry, Rajahmundry, Siliguri, Tiruchy, Tirunveli, Tirupati, Tuticorin, Vijaywada and Warangal.

The demand in most cities fell by up to three per cent and by four per cent below the excess demand at the price in the 96th round in Hyderabad.

The Percentage Price Increment applicable for the Next Clock Round rose to five each in Jodhpur and Varanasi but was just one in Guwahati and Shillong. There was no change in the other cities.

The winning price has gone up by more than 100 per cent above their respective reserve prices: Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Aurangabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kolhapur, Mumbai, Nasik, Patna, Pune, Rourkela and Varanasi, which got provisional winning bidders at prices more than double the respective reserve prices. A single channel in Bhubaneswar created a new record by getting the most competitive bidding increment-wise by going up nine times the reserve price.

The provisional winning price in the top three cities reflected no change: Delhi at Rs 169.16 crore (for just one channel), Mumbai at Rs 122.81 crore (for two channels) and Bengaluru at Rs 109.25 crore.

Chennai at Rs 53.38 crore, Ahmedabad at Rs 42.68 crore, Pune at Rs 42.03 crore, Jaipur at Rs 28.34 crore, Chandigarh at Rs 19.04 crore, Hyderabad at Rs 18 crore, Patna at Rs 17.89 crore, Cochin at Rs 15.04 crore, Nasik at Rs 14.66 crore and Lucknow at Rs 14 crore remained static.