The IRCTC e-ticketing platform faced yet another outage during peak Tatkal booking hours, leaving many users frustrated and unable to book or cancel tickets. Upon attempting to access the site, most users encountered a “downtime message” notifying them that booking and cancellation services were unavailable for an hour. This disruption caused widespread frustration, especially among those trying to secure last-minute tickets.
The downtime message on the IRCTC portal read: “Booking and Cancellation for all site will not be available for next hour. Inconvenience caused is deeply regretted. For cancellation/file TDR, please call at customer care numbers or email at eticketshirete.co.in.”
Users took to X (formerly Twitter) to vent their anger over the issue. One user expressed their disappointment, saying, “Lost the chance to book a confirmed Tatkal ticket for my father, even though I had everything ready and kept the IRCTC wallet full. Thanks to the website glitches.” Another user wrote, “Tried booking a Tatkal ticket on IRCTC, but the site crashed due to traffic! Tatkal feels more like a lottery now. Anyone else struggling?”
According to Downdetector, a platform that tracks online service outages, nearly 1,600 reports of IRCTC’s unavailability were recorded by 11:40 PM. Major cities like Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Ahmedabad were particularly affected. The majority of complaints were about the website, with additional reports of issues on the mobile app and ticket booking services.
This marks the third time this month that the IRCTC website has faced technical difficulties during critical Tatkal booking hours, leaving users feeling frustrated and helpless.
