The country's NID (national identity) server has been down for the last few days, seriously affecting service delivery of the key government agencies, officials and service recipients have said.
According to them, most of the important activities related with immigration and passport, birth certification and accountant general's office have almost stopped, as the government entities are unable to access public records due to the server crash.
Source said the NID server, where basic information of the country's citizens is stored, has not been working since Thursday last.
Being failed to restore the database server, the authorities concerned are communicating with overseas experts, but have not been able to resolve the problem even after five days.
The Identification System for Enhancing Access to Services (IDEA) Project under the Election Commission has been taking care of the NID server.
Seeking anonymity, a project official said a team, formed in this connection, came back from Singapore, while another will fly very shortly for the country.
"We're working hard, and problems related with the internal server have already been solved. It would take one or two days more to recover it," he added.
A system analyst of the project said a team of Oracle experts from Singapore are working to solve the problem.
They have managed to provide required services to about 100 institutions like banks, insurance companies, the National Board of Revenue (NBR), and telecom operators on emergency basis from Saturday, according to him.
"We know the server crash causes many problems, but all the problems will be solved very shortly," he added.
Meanwhile, service delivery of many government agencies has faced serious setback because of the server crash.
While visiting the divisional passport office at Agargaon in the capital, the FE correspondents found many people were waiting for long to get their identities verified.
Talking to the FE, one Kamrul Islam said he wants to make passport on emergency basis for medical treatment. But the process has been halt for the last two days, as the passport office cannot access the server.
"I don't know where the problem lies," he said with frustration.
When contacted, Touhidul Alam, a data entry operator of enrollment booth at the divisional passport office, said they are facing serious difficulties in getting access to the server.
"We could not verify identities of the people, who are coming to us for passport-related activities," he said.
Contacted, director of Institute of Information and Communication Technology at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) Professor Dr Md Saiful Islam said there can be many reasons for which a server may go down.
He said a deadlock can be created for lack of regular maintenance of the Oracle database, or a high-level Internet Service Provider (ISP)-related problem can also be a reason. But it is not possible in Bangladesh, as the country uses submarine cable connection.
"It is a serious matter, considering the country's information security. Like other key government agencies, the law-enforcers will also face difficulties in identifying serious offenders," he added.
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