On Tuesday morning, passengers faced numerous issues while trying to book train tickets on the popular IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation) app, which operates under the Indian Railways.
Both the website and app were non-functional for about 8 hours before they finally started working again in the afternoon.
The technical problems hampered ticket booking and payment processes, causing inconvenience to users.
The disruption primarily affected passengers attempting to book tatkal tickets between 10 am to 11 am.
Complaints poured in from frustrated travelers who encountered difficulties on both the IRCTC app and website.
IRCTC’s Response
During the outage, IRCTC advised passengers through Twitter to use the Wallet option for payments and recommended the Ask Disha feature for booking.
However, despite these recommendations, travelers continued to face issues even with Ask Disha, with payments deducted but tickets not being booked.
Many passengers shared screenshots as evidence of the deducted money without successful ticket bookings.
In another tweet, IRCTC acknowledged the technical problems, stating that ticketing services were temporarily unavailable due to technical reasons.
The company’s technical team was working diligently to resolve the issue, and they promised to keep the public informed about the progress.
Moreover, IRCTC informed passengers that they could opt to book tickets through alternative platforms such as Amazon and MakeMyTrip.
This announcement came after numerous complaints about the unavailability of payment options on IRCTC’s wallet system.
Railways’ Initiative
To alleviate the inconvenience caused to passengers, the Railways took action by opening additional railway counters.
These additional counters were set up at various locations, including New Delhi, Shahdara, Okhla, Nizamuddin Station, Sarojini Nagar, Sabzi Mandi, Delhi Junction, Kirti Nagar, and Azadpur.
This move aimed to provide an alternative ticket booking option for travelers, especially those who were unable to access the IRCTC app or website during the technical disruption.
The situation has improved since then, and passengers can now resume booking their train tickets through IRCTC’s platforms without further hindrance.
