ISLAMABAD-‘City Islamabad’ application has generated a total revenue of Rs50 million in six months since it was launched by the administration of Islamabad, claims National Information Technology Board (NITB).
In a press release issued here on Saturday, NITB explained that the revenue came from different resident applicants who opted to avail services offered in this application on a single click.
Talking to The Nation, Head of the Team Lead Digital Solutions Sarmad revealed that NITB has introduced a total of 39 portal applications at the moment out of which 18 are live and on board. Apart from this, 82 websites are also developed for easy gain of information from almost any government department, said Sarmad.
Quoting a senior civil administration official, The Nation had reported on Friday about the hacking of two of the applications which were lately launched by the administration of Islamabad.
However, National Information Technology Board (NITB) press release also commented on The Nation report and termed the report as untrue. But instead it stated that the application is running up to the mark and is turning out to be tremendous in terms of both feedback and revenue generation.
NITB, though admitted that one of the service (car token payment service) was not functional at the moment and their department was working on it to make it live.
The press release states that the department and app developers follow strict compliance, and all vulnerability testings are performed to ensure that there is no gap left at application or infrastructural end, which may lead to falling prey by compromising on our citizen critical information and data.
The application was made live on 28th of March 2020 and up till now, a total number of downloads have reached 73,430 on android devices and 9,291 on iOS Apple devices. These numbers are only from Islamabad which clearly reflect the growing trust of the citizens in this application, states the press release.
On visiting NITB, this correspondent also met Mr Sarmad, Head of the Team Lead Digital Solutions, who told that the applications were developed on high standards of cyber security and information security and it was almost impossible to intrude or hack these. He explained showing this correspondent how each of the applications and websites launched by NITB had Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security system which is used worldwide by high tech companies.
Explaining further about their security system, the official told that before every national event or holiday or any special day, their department is bound to follow a procedure which is solely done to eliminate any chance of hacking if there is any.
The official further briefed that all services in City Islamabad app are live except Token Tax Payment Service, which was intentionally made down for upgrading purpose for integration with one of the link which will be allowing citizens to avail the services with value added feature of payment through their internet banking.
The official showed this correspondent each of the websites and applications launched by their department and without doubt they were all working, learnt The Nation.
The official ensured that NITB is striving and shall continue to strive even harder for digital transformation of Pakistan for the best of public interests.