PR hiring NTC to host e-services

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Railways (PR) has formally requested the Ministry of Information Technology (IT) to grant permission to National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) to host its E-Services, a statement said on Wednesday.

“Pakistan Railways intends to extend collaboration by migrating all of its E-services to the National Data Center being managed by NTC,” said PR in a letter to the IT ministry, a copy of which is available with The News.

As per the letter Pakistan Railways has asked the Ministry of IT to allow NTC to host PR E-Services on National Data Center by signing an memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Pakistan Railways.

Railways, in its letter, also mentioned it had requested National Telecommunication Corporation for its online booking applications on January 25, 2021. NTC provided requested Data Center services "on war footing basis to Pakistan Railways''. Pakistan Railways’ advance reservation and E-ticketing application is currently being run through the National Data Center.

Two weeks ago, Pakistan Railways, after suffering a system crash, had requested the NTC to uplink its e-ticketing, financial, and human resource system.

NTC, in response, restored the system by providing its own infrastructure through its National Data Centre in less than 24 hours. NTC team is still in continuous coordination with Railways regarding restoration of all services, the Railways said in the letter.