Kathmandu, January 31

Service-seekers were unable to submit online applications for driving licence today because the server of the Department of Transport Management (DoTM) got partially hacked.

As the DoTM’s servers in Butwal and Pokhara were hacked, the department decided to entirely halt the service of online applications for driving licence for the time being.

DoTM officials said other offices of the department have been asked to remain on alert.

“As we received numerous complaints from service-seekers that they were unable to fill online applications, we crosschecked the system immediately and found that it had been hacked,” informed Gogan Bahadur Hamal, director general at DoTM. “A significant number of online applications was found to have been filled through a single IP address in Butwal.”

According to him, the online licence application service will be resumed after the error witnessed in the system has been studied and rectified.

The DoTM is also preparing to seek help of Nepal Police in this case.

An initial probe carried out by DoTM has revealed that some middlemen were involved in filling out the applications of some service-seekers and they had hacked the system to prevent others from filling up the form.

“The technical department of DoTM is working to address this issue,” said Hamal.

DoTM had launched the online driving licence registration system in 2016 ending the compulsion for service-seekers to visit the department’s offices to fill up the application. However, online application registration system has been affected time and again due to various technical glitches and hacking.

Meanwhile, Hamal assured that the department will soon look into options to permanently address the sporadic problems being witnessed in the online server of DoTM.