The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website is facing a major outage this morning, disrupting Tatkal ticket bookings during the critical 10 AM window. Passengers attempting to access the platform were met with errors stating, “Booking and cancellation for all site will not be available for next hour. Inconvenience caused is deeply regretted”
This is the second significant disruption IRCTC has faced this month, following the one on December 26. The latest crash left many frustrated, particularly those seeking Tatkal tickets, which are only available for booking a day before departure.
Outage tracking service Downdetector reported a sharp increase in problem reports during the morning hours. According to the platform, around 700 users reported facing the issue.
IRCTC outage: Details
Angry users took to social media to express their frustration, with several accusing the system of being manipulated. Many claimed that after the service was restored, only premium Tatkal tickets, priced at double the standard rates, were available.
“Dear@IRCTCofficial, your tour services have consistently failed to meet expectations. Booking Tatkal tickets has been a frustrating experience, both 10 years ago and even now. It might be time to reconsider offering services that do not meet acceptable standards. @RailMinIndia,” wrote one user on X (formerly Twitter).
Another wrote “Why can’t the engineers/Govt think of any alternate solutions for irctc tatkal bottleneck. I have always faced problems when booking tatkal, what’s the purpose of a system if it cannot serve a purpose?”.