e-Pass initiative get overwhelming response

Dashboard crashes soon as it goes live

04/05/2020, ABHINAY DESHPANDE,HYDERABAD

The e-pass dashboard of Telangana police website crashed as soon as it went live, thanks to an ‘overwhelming’ response from people applying to leave the State.

The extreme web traffic on the said website caused a server error and users were unable to access the dashboard for hours on Sunday. Director General of Police M Mahender Reddy on Sunday evening announced the e-Pass initiative for those stranded in Telangana.

Officials had anticipated big numbers but were still surprised by the rush of web users that led to the crash. For now, police have clarified that e-passes will be issued only to those who have already arranged vehicles for their own travel, as opposed to those who are looking for support from the government for movement. While hordes of people with private vehicles applied for the e-pass, police officials said that many who have booked cabs or hired private vehicles for their commute have also applied. Details of the vehicle and passengers are required to be uploaded on the e-pass dashboard for securing the permit online.

Access issues

Even though police issued e-passes to thousands of applicants within hours of them having submitted their documents, the sheer load of scanned copies of documents going online at the same time resulted in access issues for many users, officials clarified. The dashboard crash has also resulted in delaying e-pass clearance for many, and in this manner, web traffic kept spiking up every time the dashboard was restored.

Speaking to The Hindu, a senior police officer said that on Sunday alone police units across the State issued 7,749 e-Pass for inter-State travel, while the number of applications was over 14,000.

“Concerned units will clear the application. Hundreds of passes were rejected due to lack of details,” the officer said.

Once the application is approved, the applicant will get a link of e-pass through SMS, which will be honoured by all the State across the country. The officer said that many applied for post date travel permission, which resulted in delay of ‘urgent’ passes.