IRCTC Website crashes and faces downtime amid festive ticket rush

IRCTC website went down this morning due to high traffic ahead of Diwali and Chhath Puja, causing inconvenience for passengers booking Tatkal tickets. Experts urge server upgrades, while users are advised to try again after some time.

New Delhi: The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website was down for some time this morning, causing significant inconvenience to passengers trying to book tickets during the festive season.

The surge in passenger numbers ahead of major festivals like Diwali and Chhath Puja led to a sudden increase in traffic on the website, putting immense pressure on the system. Users on the website saw a message stating, “This site is currently unreachable; please try again later.”

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The Challenge of Ticket Booking During the Festive Season

The demand for tickets is extremely high during Diwali and Chhath Puja. Especially during Tatkal booking, people try to secure tickets at the last minute. This often leads to a surge in traffic on the IRCTC website.

This is why similar outages have been observed on the platform a few days before Diwali in the past. A similar problem occurred today, making it difficult for passengers to book Tatkal tickets.

User Reactions on Social Media

Many users shared their frustrations on social media, posting screenshots of the site being down or displaying error messages. People reported difficulty accessing the website and failed attempts at booking tickets. This problem was not limited to just a few people; thousands were affected.

Technical Reasons and System Overload

Experts believe that the sudden influx of users logging onto the site as soon as bookings opened in the morning caused an excessive load on the servers, leading to a system crash.

Due to the limited capacity of the IRCTC platform to handle maximum traffic, slowdowns or outages frequently occur during festivals or Tatkal booking periods.

Past Experiences and Future Preparations

A similar problem occurred last Friday, before Diwali. At that time too, the site went down before Tatkal booking began, and many passengers received an error code 109 message stating, “The server is currently unable to process the request.”

To avoid such technical problems, IRCTC needs to increase its platform capacity and provide better server support during high-traffic periods.

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Heavy traffic on the IRCTC website during the festive season is common, but it causes difficulties for passengers trying to book tickets. Only continuous improvements and increased server capacity can mitigate these problems.

For now, passengers are advised to be patient and try again after some time.