IRCTC outage disrupts e-ticketing services, leaves thousands of passengers stranded

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the official online ticketing platform of Indian Railways, experienced a significant outage on Thursday, causing widespread inconvenience to users unable to access its website and mobile application. The disruption was attributed to ongoing maintenance activities.

A notice on the IRCTC website confirmed the downtime, stating, “Due to maintenance activity, e-ticketing service will not be available.” Additionally, Downdetector, a platform tracking service outages, reported over 2,500 complaints from users unable to utilize the service.

The outage came at a critical time, leaving numerous passengers, particularly those attempting to book Tatkal tickets during the busy holiday season, stranded. The platform serves millions of passengers daily for booking and managing train tickets.

This marks the second disruption in December for the e-ticketing service, raising concerns among passengers about the platform’s reliability. 

In an advisory, IRCTC offered alternatives for passengers needing to cancel tickets. It directed users to contact customer care at 14646, 08044647999, or 08035734999, or email their ticket details to etickets@irctc.co.in to generate a Ticket Deposit Receipt (TDR).

As passengers continue to rely heavily on IRCTC for train bookings, such outages underline the importance of robust technical infrastructure, particularly during peak travel seasons.


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