CHENNAI: IRCTC portal malfunctioning or freezing during Tatkal ticket bookings was something of the past, but in the last few months it has been hanging, and only loads after four or five minutes, by which time the tickets are either waitlisted or unavailable. What makes the issue suspicious is the claims from passengers that travel agents are able to book confirmed Tatkal tickets even on high-demand routes during the same high-demand booking window.
The Tatkal bookings open at 10am for AC classes and 11am for non-AC class (sleeper and second sitting). IRCTC had upgraded its server a few years back to handle high traffic demand during Tatkal bookings, but it has resurfaced again in recent months. The IRCTC rail connect mobile app also faces the same issue, say commuters. As per official data, more than 80% of train tickets are booked online.
IRCTC officials admitted that they have been receiving complaints recently, particularly during Deepavali and Chhath festival, and maintained that the issue was due to high volume of bookings and it was escalated to the concerned team.
To increase the chances of getting confirmed tickets, S Jeyavel, a rail enthusiast, said he loads money into the IRCTC R-wallet to reduce payment waiting time. “I’ve saved my wife’s and my details in the master list on the portal to avoid re-entering them during booking,” he added. However, in the last four months, when he attempted to book tickets on five different occasions, he was logged out each time. When he logged in again, he received an error message indicating an incorrect captcha, even though he had entered it correctly.
He added that his IRCTC account was verified with Aadhaar, and until April or May he was able to book Tatkal tickets without any issues.
Previously, the IRCTC portal would only develop glitches at 11am, when bookings opened for the non-AC class, which accounts for nearly 70% of Indian Railways tickets. However, the portal never crashed at 10am, when AC Tatkal bookings opened.
S Ramchand, a resident of Mannady, shared a similar experience. “I couldn’t book tickets from Chennai to Jaipur despite using high-speed internet, but a travel agent managed to secure them. The moment I clicked ‘Book Now’ on the website, the system froze and failed to load.”
Ramchand added that his staff was only able to secure a confirmed ticket at the counter two months back, after waiting in line for two hours. “Even at the reservation counters, the staff say they frequently encounter system issues,” he said.
According to railway board norms, a passenger can book 24 train tickets in a month on the IRCTC website and app if the user id is linked to Aadhaar, and 12 without linking Aadhaar.