CHENNAI: The advance berth reservations in trains for the Pongal festival next year were sold out within minutes after the reservation opened on Thursday. The passengers can reserve tickets up to 120 days in advance. The reservation counters witnessed serpentine queues as early as 6 a.m. across the city.
For journeys scheduled for January 12 (Friday), reservations opened at 8 a.m. on Thursday. Tickets for both sleeper and third AC classes heading to Madurai, Tiruchy, Tirunelveli, Thanjavur, Coimbatore, Tiruppur and Erode were sold out within minutes.
The passengers in waiting lists for sleeper coaches on trains - Pandiyan, Podhigai, Kanniyakumari, and Nellai - reached 200 in 20 minutes. Bogi festival is set to be celebrated on January 14 (Sunday), with the main festivals Pongal and Mattu Pongal falling on January 15 (Monday) and January 16 (Tuesday) respectively. Compared to ticket bookings for January 11 (Thursday), there was a huge demand for travel on January 12 (Friday) due to the two consecutive holidays, prompting a large number of travellers to queue up at advance reservation counters.
An official said, “Additional special trains will be introduced as needed.” In the meantime, there was a brief disruption in online booking during the afternoon due to technical glitches at the IRCTC portal.