NEW DELHI: With little or no movement for more than two weeks except for the Muzaffarpur bids, the e-auction for the second batch of FM Phase has been stopped, even as 44 cities failed to attract bidders, with just M/s South Asia FM Ltd declared as the winning bidder for five Radio FM channels a day after commencement of the process.

Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources had earlier told radioandmusic.com that the aim was to continue till all the channels slated in the second batch were auctioned, but breaks will have to be taken for weekends and national holidays.

Ministry sources told the website today that a final result for the second will be issued in a day or two.

On the last day of the e-auction on 13 December, the bid for Muzaffarpur had risen to Rs 4,35,31,244.from Rs 4,10,47,850 last week, but for the first time remaining below the clock round price of Rs 4,39,66,556.

Hyderabad and Dehradun remained at top with Rs 23,43,48,266 and Rs 15,61,00,590 respectively on the 26th day with the completion of three rounds taking the total to 100.

Fourteen bidding companies had been shortlisted for taking part in the second batch.. M/s South Asia FM Ltd will be allotted FM Channels in Surat, Amritsar, Patna, Chandigarh and Jammu.

Other than Hyderabad and Dehradun, the top sixteen cities remained static with bids of more than Rs 32 million. The bids at Alappuzha (Alleppey), Erode, Hubli-Dharwad, Nellore, Salem, Vellore and Vijaywada remained at just over Rs 70 million while bids for Tiruchy was just above Rs 50 million and Tirupathi, Puducherry and Muzaffarpur to a little over Rs 40 million. Amravati, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar and Ujjain bid a little over Rs 35 million and Mysuru a little over Rs 32 million.

The first day of auction on 26 October saw a winning price of Rs 1820 milion against the aggregate price of Rs 1792 million, while the second day onwards the bidding has been low.

This data has been compiled on the basis of system generated “Final Round Result Report” and “Frequency Identification Report” accessible through auction administrator role.

Also Read : South Asia FM bags five channels in first round of the second batch of FM Batch III

FM Phase III: E-auction moving at snail's pace even as Muzaffarpur shows some rise