The Chandigarh duo of Abhijit Singh Chadha and Ajeetesh Sandhu occupied joint second place along with Delhi's Shamim Khan at five-under-65.
Lucknow's Sanjay Kumar, the winner in Shillong a few weeks ago, was placed tied fifth at four-under-66 along with Harish K of Mysore, Mhow golfer Om Prakash Chouhan and Jaipur's Vishal Singh.
Defending champion Chikkarangappa of Bangalore posted a three-under-67 to end the day in tied ninth place along with nine other golfers. Delhi's Kapil Kumar, who also shared ninth place with Chikka, had the distinction of making six consecutive birdies from the 18th to the fifth.
The 36-year-old then made merry on the four par-5s by picking up strokes on each one of them. His putt from just off the green left him a tap-in birdie on the 16th. He then holed it in spectacular fashion from 90 yards out for birdie on the 18th. Ghotra drained two 10-feet putts on the first and fourth for birdie and eagle, respectively to be five-under on the four par-5 holes.
Chadha, a two-time runner-up this season, and Shamim Khan, winner of PGTI's last event in Digboi, came up with bogey-free rounds of 65 to be placed joint second.
Sandhu made it a three-way tie for second place with a matching 65. He too was bogey-free till the 16th but his three-putt on the 17th resulted in a double-bogey. He made up for the double-bogey with an eagle on the closing 18th where his second shot from 185 yards stopped within a foot of the pin.