IRCTC to soon be able to book 7,200 tickets per minute

Tearing your hair out while trying to book e-tickets on IRCTC’s website might soon be a thing of the past. The Minister of State for Railways, Kotla Jaya Surya Prakash Reddy has confirmed yet again that the website will soon allow the booking of 7,200 tickers per minute sometime in the future.

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Reddy said that the “next generation” e-ticket system was still being developed by Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS). He echoed IRCTC’s MD R K Tandon, who in May had confirmed that such a system was in works.

Booking tickets on IRCTC to get faster

Currently, the website that faces a lot of flak from users, manages to handle bookings of about 2,000 tickets a minute and can manage 1.2 lakh concurrent connections on its web servers. Thanks to the new e-ticket system, the website will be able to increase its booking speed manifold and will be able to serve 7,200 bookings in a minute.

The website will burn a hole of about Rs 68.97 crores in the pocket of the Railways Ministry but will come as a much-welcomed move for users. The plan is not just to make the website book more tickets in less time but also to be able to provide for seamless access during peak hours, business continuity as well as the ability to provide for future growth.

Interestingly, IRCTC has launched a shopping site this week. Hitting on the “Shop” tab on the website will take you to a portal powered by Yebhi.com where you can purchase retail goods for men, women and kids. The portal has on display clothing, accessories, home décor and furnishing, kitchenware, phones, tablets and other electronic devices too.