A team of computer experts from Pune has successfully resolved a major technical issue at the Regional Transport Office (RTO) in Nagpur that had been delaying the renewal of driving licenses issued between 1999 and 2007. The issue had persisted for nearly two months and caused a backlog of over 100 pending applications. The problem started with a glitch in the old server system, which was used to store driving license (DL) data prior to 2007. The Sarathi-1 system, which was introduced before the year 2000, relied on local office-based servers to store data. However, the RTO Nagpur’s server, which was still functioning on the older Sarathi-1 system, malfunctioned and failed to retrieve data for applications from 1999 to 2007.

 

This caused a major delay in processing DL renewals. Despite efforts by local cyber experts from Nagpur and Kolhapur, the issue could not be resolved. Finally, a specialised team of computer experts from Pune was brought in to address the problem. After working intensively for nearly a week, the Pune team successfully identified the root cause and restored the server’s functionality. RTO Nagpur head, Kiran Bidkar, explained that the Sarathi-1 system had been replaced by the Sarathi-4 system, which uses an online server. However, the legacy data from the earlier Sarathi-1 system was still stored on local servers which made it vulnerable to technical glitches. “The issue arose due to a malfunction in the old system, and despite several attempts by local experts, the data could not be retrieved. The Pune team was able to pinpoint and fix the glitch, which has allowed us to access the pending records,” said RTO Bidkar. He further assured that the backlog of renewal applications would be processed within the next two to three days, clearing the delay caused by the technical issues.