NEW DELHI: With virtually no bidding on the 29th day in the FM Phase III e-auctions with the cumulative winning price at the end of the 116th round to rising by just Rs 4 lakh from yesterday to Rs 1156.6 crore today, the focus now appears to be shifting to the 31 cities that have so far got bids between Rs 1 - 9 crore.

Even this minuscule rise could be attributed to the fact that the number of channels went up by one to 97 channels in 56 cities, though the total bids remained the same as yesterday being above the cumulative reserve price by Rs 696.7 crore or 151.5 per cent against the aggregate reserve price of about Rs 459.8 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 606.4 crore or 110.2 per cent.  

Cities in the corridors leading to the Rs 10 crore club appear to be Kanpur, Rajkot, Amritsar, Madurai, and Aurangabad, which have all got above Rs 6 crore each. 

After almost one month of bidding, thirteen cities still continue to elude bidders. They 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 116th round in Hyderabad.

The Percentage Price Increment applicable for the Next Clock Round rose to five in Bareilly but was one in Jalgaon. There was no change in other cities.