In a first, the Punjab government has introduced e-auction for sale of property to ensure transparency. The new initiative will replace the manual auction being held for past many years.

To go ahead with the e-auction, the department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has decided to hold e-auction from 21 September to 5 October for the sale of property in the state.

HUD officers said that the auction is likely to offer all types of property available for sale all over the state within the jurisdiction of any of the development authorities.

The long term auction beginning from 21 September will consist of various types of properties located at all major towns in Punjab including Mohali, Patiala, Ludhiana, Bathinda, Amritsar, Jalandhar.

Details of properties offered for auction, mode of payment, land use, terms and conditions of auction, location and price would be uploaded on time. For any clarification a dedicated helpline number would be made available to the bidders.

“Domain of the e-auction portal has been finalized. Introduction of e-auction process is anticipated to attract more participation and from a wider spectrum of people. Prospective bidders and employees have been trained to participate or monitor the process of e-auction. Banks and service provider have been tied up”, HUD additional chief secretary, Vini Mahajan, told The Statesman.

She also said HDFC Bank and AXIS Bank have been engaged for providing e- payment facility, timely refund, collection and reconciliation of payments.

As per the plan, the e-auction process is equipped with Short Message Service (SMS) facility. The facility entails informing the bidders through SMS about the highest bid received against each property enabling them to increase their bid to become successful bidder. The e-auction facilitates a bidder to bid for multiple sites against single earnest money or eligibility fee.

Bidders participating in the auction will be able to make their payment through net banking, credit card, debit card, debit card, Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS), National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT). The move is significant as no registration fee would be charged from the bidders for their registration before participating in the auction. Associated banks will ensure the timely refund of eligibility fee to the unsuccessful bidders.

Similarly, the introduction of e-auction process would save considerable amount of money spent on making arrangements for holding manual auction. To an extent, this will also save money spent on advertising. Besides, bidders will be saving their time and money spent on visiting office time and again to ascertain information about manual auction, depositing and seeking refund of earnest money.