IRCTC still probing reasons for frequent website crashes during Tatkal hours

MUMBAI: While the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is trying to pinpoint the reasons for the recent instances of their website crashing just about the time the Tatkal ticket booking opens, internal data reveals that ticket sales during the Tatkal period jump from 3.6 times to 4.3 times the average hourly booking figures.

On Monday, IRCTC authorities accepted that there was a sudden spike in demand for ticket booking between 10 am and 12 noon when Tatkal ticket booking is opened to the public. Hindustan Times on January 13 reported this issue in the article ‘IRCTC website crashes during peak hours, leaves passengers fuming’.

Between 10 am and 11 am, people can book tickets for AC coaches while from 11 am to 12 noon, Tatkal booking for sleeper coaches is opened. The hourly average of tickets booked is around 51,500, which touches 1.86 lakh to 2.23 lakh per hour for AC and sleeper coaches during Tatkal hours.

“There is a sudden rush to book tickets on the IRCTC website during Tatkal time, which increases bookings by 200% to 400%,” said an IRCTC official. “Our teams are trying to figure out the causes of the failure of the IRCTC website occurring during the Tatkal period for about 30 minutes or so. It’s not like it’s peak holiday time when demand surges, so there seems to be some issue that needs to be plugged.”

The authorities are examining all the likely reasons for the crash, whether technical failure or external factors. In the 13 days of this month, the IRCTC website has crashed at least five times although PRS counters continued to issue physical tickets.

IRCTC officials said that the earlier e-ticketing system had been replaced with the Next Generation E-Ticketing (NGeT) system back in April 2014, and it was constantly upgraded to improve the capacity of ticket bookings per minute. Sources said that the average bookings of e-tickets through the mobile app during 2023-24 were 6.35 lakh tickets per day as compared to 5.60 lakh tickets in 2022-23.

Akshay Mahapadi, a member of the Akhand Konkan Railway Pravasi Seva Samiti, said, “The IRCTC, in response to my query on the failure of its website, said that it was active at any given point of time, as about 12 lakh tickets are booked daily. However, there is an extraordinarily heavy rush from 10 am to 10.30 am and 11 am to 11.30 am for Tatkal bookings at PRS counters as well, resulting in internet booking also getting affected.” Tatkal tickets are usually in high demand when passengers try getting confirmed outstation trains tickets at the last moment.

A mind-boggling 12.20 crore IRCTC mobile app were downloaded until March 2024; there has also been a continuous increase in online booking share over the years. In 2023-24, the share of reserved rail tickets booked online was 82.68% as compared to 80.99% in 2022-23. IRCTC data reveals that there has been an increase of over 28% in e-tickets.

Quick context

- The IRCTC website has been crashing frequently this month

- The crash happens just when Tatkal ticket booking is about to be opened at 10 am

- The downtime is for about 30-35 minutes

- Commuters nationwide are inconvenienced, as over 82% of bookings take place online

- During the Tatkal period (10 am to 12 noon) e-ticket booking goes up 2-3 times

- IRCTC is still attempting to find the reasons behind the website’s failure