Mysuru:  Online ticketing facility has been affected following a glitch in the Mysore Palace Board website since yesterday. Star of Mysore office received many calls from tourists since last evening with the callers complaining that the website www.mysorepalace.gov.in which used to provide e-ticketing facility was defunct.

Future Design Technologies had designed and upgraded the interactive website which was user-friendly with e-ticketing system and world-class design. The facility was inaugurated by the then District Minister Dr. H.C. Mahadevappa on Aug. 17, 2017.

Following frequent calls, SOM contacted Naveen Kavirathna of Future Design Technologies who said that the server had become inactive as the Palace Board authorities did not renew the annual website maintenance contract with his company. He said that despite sending letters on July 23 and July 28 to the Palace Board Deputy Director seeking permission to renew the contract, he has not received any communication in this regard so far.

Palace Board clarifies: Reacting on the present state of the website, Palace Board Deputy Director T.S. Subramanya said that the server was inactive as it is being shifted to a government e-governance and State Bank of India (SBI) server from the present private server. This would take two to three days, he added.

He further said that since the Palace Board has its account in SBI, the amount of tickets purchased online would be instantly credited into the Palace Board account. This was not happening earlier as money was being credited one or two days late. He said that the online e-ticketing facility will commence in a day or two.

When asked about the validity of already-purchased online tickets where tourists are yet to visit the Palace, Subramanya said that very few people had purchased online tickets. The tickets, purchased online through private server are valid for six months and the tourists can choose any time of their visit, he said.   

However, according to Naveen, each online ticket comes with a Quick Response (QR) code which has to be scanned by the ticket collector and the server has to respond to check the authenticity of the ticket. As the server is down, e-tickets cannot be validated and this would inconvenience the visitors who have purchased online tickets.

Naveen further said that the e-Ticketing system provided by him has passed the security audit done by CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) empanelled security auditor and added that this is the only ticketing system in city which has got this certificate.