CHENNAI: Passengers faced difficulties booking train tickets on Friday (September 11) as demand for Tatkal tickets surged during the festive season, causing the IRCTC website to crash temporarily, according to a Daily Thanthi report.
With festival holidays such as Vinayagar Chaturthi and Deepavali approaching, the demand for train tickets has surged, with a large number of passengers trying to book tickets through the Indian Railways’ Tatkal system.
On Friday, a large number of passengers logged on to the IRCTC website to book tickets under the Tatkal quota. When Tatkal booking for non-AC coaches opened at around 11 am, thousands of users attempted to access the website simultaneously, reportedly causing the site to crash.
The website remained inaccessible from 11 am to around 11:20 am, with several passengers receiving an error message stating, “Request could not be processed due to high traffic.” As a result, passengers were unable to enter their details or complete their payments.
By the time the website returned to normal, most Tatkal tickets had reportedly been sold out, with the remaining tickets moving to the waiting list, leaving thousands of passengers disappointed.
Passengers allege that technical issues during Tatkal bookings have become a recurring problem. They have urged the authorities to take immediate steps to address the issue, improve server capacity and ensure uninterrupted ticket-booking services, particularly during periods of high demand.