IRCTC faces major outage nationwide during peak Tatkal hours

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) e-ticketing platform experienced a widespread outage on Thursday, impacting passengers attempting to book or manage train tickets. The outage, which affected both the IRCTC website and mobile application, was attributed to scheduled maintenance. A notice on the platform read, "Due to maintenance activity, e-ticketing service will not be available."

Downdetector, a service that tracks online disruptions, recorded over 2,500 complaints of the outage by 11:48 AM, with users from cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai, Surat, and Jaipur reporting issues. The disruption occurred during peak booking hours, with passengers unable to access Tatkal booking services, which are in high demand, especially during the holiday season.

The Tatkal booking window for AC classes opens at 10 AM, and for non-AC classes at 11 AM, with tickets available for booking one day before the train’s departure. The outage significantly impacted travelers trying to secure tickets during this critical window, leading to widespread frustration. Many passengers who were unable to access the site found that Tatkal tickets were sold out by the time the platform became accessible again.

In response to the outage, IRCTC advised passengers to contact customer care for assistance with cancellations. The helpline numbers provided were 14646, 08044647999, and 08035734999, and passengers were also advised to email their ticket details to [email protected] to process cancellations or to obtain a Ticket Deposit Receipt (TDR). However, details on the estimated duration of the outage or the specific nature of the maintenance activities have not been disclosed.

This is the second significant disruption of the IRCTC platform in December. A previous outage occurred on December 9, when the platform was down for an hour due to similar maintenance. Passengers have raised concerns over the frequency of such disruptions, particularly during critical booking times, as millions rely on the platform for train ticket bookings, especially during the busy holiday season.