Assam: The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) experienced a significant outage on Thursday, leaving users unable to access its website and mobile application. The disruption, attributed to ongoing maintenance activities, caused widespread inconvenience to passengers attempting to book tickets.
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, particularly during the busy holiday season, leaving numerous passengers stranded. Many were attempting to book Tatkal tickets, and the platform’s unavailability caused significant disruptions. The IRCTC 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 response, IRCTC offered alternatives for passengers needing to cancel tickets. Passengers can 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 highlight the importance of robust technical infrastructure, particularly during peak travel seasons.
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