IRCTC's Tatkal bookings hit after website, app shut for maintenance; passengers take to Twitter with complaints

The online Tatkal services of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) were totally affected due to shutting down of its website and app for maintenance on Thursday morning, said a media report. Passengers were enraged over the way IRCTC selected the morning hours as the timing for maintenance of the site as it is the peak time for booking Tatkal tickets, according to ET Now. Passengers can book Tatkal tickets online at 10 am for all AC classes and at 11 am for all non-AC classes daily. [caption id=“attachment_5121451” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. News18[/caption] The IRCTC website was not responding and the screen displayed site maintenance message which stated, “Due to maintenance activity E-Ticketing is not available please try later for cancellation/ file TDS. " Following the breakdown of the IRCTC ticket booking site, passengers took to Twitter to vent their ire on the Railways. Passengers flayed IRCTC and Railways for not informing in advance about the shutting down of the website for maintenance. Some even complained that they could not cast their vote as the last and 7th phase of the Lok Sabha elections is to be held on 19 May. Moreover, it is summer vacation time and a lot of people plan their travel instantly relying on the Tatkal facility. Manu Krishnan, a passenger, was scathing on Twitter and said if the Railways do not know how to handle millions of requests at a time for Tatkal, then it was time they went and learnt about technology from some ‘good company’.

Abhijeet Pahapalkar, another passenger, tweeted, “Why IRCTC booking website is down for maintenance reason on as such peak time. Have tried to book Tatkal ticket and app and site both didn’t allow me to login. what a pathetic service #IRCTC @PiyushGoyal”

Yogesh Gupte, a Twitter user, said, “@narendramodi @PiyushGoyal @IRCTCofficial @TCS During Tatkal ticket booking website crashed!! First make the IT infrastructure very strong then it’s worth dream about running bullet trains!!!#IRCTC #LokSabhaElections2019.”  

Rishi Rawat, another Twitter user, said that  IRCTC does not inform the passengers about maintenance time and thus they waste their time by trying.”