Kathmandu, July 18

Driving licence applicants were forced to return home dejected today, as the server of Department of Transport Management remained down.

Though the server problem was limited to Bagmati Zonal Transport Management Office until Monday, the servers of all Transport Management Offices crashed today, bringing the driving licence distribution across the country to a screeching halt.

The driving licence distribution, which had been halted for local level elections, resumed from Sunday for the first time since June 21. But, the server of Ekantakuna-based Bagmati Zonal Transport Management Office has been affected since Sunday itself, which has left applicants seeking service from the office in the lurch.

Applicants in the Valley had visited the Bagmati Zonal Transport Management Office today to submit their applications manually. However, when the officials refused to accept manual applications, service-seekers staged a protest and even padlocked government officials inside the office for some time demanding immediate resumption of service.

Officials of Bagmati Zonal Transport Management Office admitted that the server had crashed more than 50 times since the DoTM introduced online registration of driving licences in January. However, despite facing repeated problems due to the server, government officials seem less keen on finding a lasting solution.

One official of Bagmati Zonal Transport Management Office sought to pass the buck saying ‘the server is controlled by an Indian firm — Madras Printer’. “The DoTM should urge the company to ensure effective server,” he said, while seeking anonymity.

Meanwhile, Tej Narayan Yadav, chief of Ekantakuna-based Transport Management Office, said steps have been taken to increase capacity of the server. “Since the number of applications have piled up at Bagmati Zonal Office, we will start taking new applications only from Sunday. But all the other offices under DoTM will start accepting applications and issuing licences from Wednesday.”