IRCTC Booking For Indian Railways Special Trains To Resume At 6 PM After Website Crashes Due To Heavy Demand

Within minutes after the Indian Railways on Monday started taking bookings at 4 pm for the 15 pairs of the Special trains to be operational in the first phase of lockdown ease, the IRCTC website crashed due to heavy online traffic as passengers waiting for over a month and half immediately started logging in.

Just when the IRCTC was supposed to start functioning after an unprecedented hold on train movement in the country due to the pandemic, users started facing difficulty in booking reservations or even logging in.

The Railway Ministry instantly issued a statement and said: "Data pertaining to special trains is being fed in the IRCTC website. Train ticket bookings will be available in a short while. Please wait. Inconvenience is regretted."

On Sunday, the Indian Railways announced that 15 pairs of the Special Air Conditioned trains will depart from New Delhi to several parts of the country. It also said that the tickets for these trains can be bought from the IRCTC website and no tickets will be sold on any stations or ticket counters.

The railways has suspended the passenger, mail and express train services on 25 March amid the nationwide lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 24 March.

Since then railways has been running the freight and special parcel trains to ensure the supply of essential items. The railways have started to run Shramik Special trains from 1 May onwards to transport the stranded migrant workers, students, pilgrims and tourists.

The story has been published via a syndicated feed