Chennai, 17 October (H.S.): Commuters seeking to secure their last-minute travel reservations for the upcoming Deepavali weekend were thrown into chaos today after the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website experienced a significant technical failure. The crucial online portal crashed around 11 am and remained inaccessible for nearly 40 minutes, causing a massive disruption to Tatkal ticket bookings across the nation.

The outage occurred at a critical juncture, as demand for train travel is exceptionally high ahead of the October 17-20 Deepavali holiday window. With train fares remaining significantly lower than the escalating prices of Omni bus tickets, many families and travellers rely heavily on the railways. This intense demand has already resulted in special train tickets selling out within minutes, pushing waiting lists for many routes past the 100 mark. The system failure effectively suspended all online ticket bookings and cancellations for approximately an hour, leading to widespread panic among passengers trying to access the Tatkal quota, which operates a day prior to the journey.

Updates: As the digital booking platform failed, passengers immediately rushed to physical railway reservation counters across various stations to purchase their tickets offline. This swift action was taken after railway authorities made the necessary adjustments to ensure Tatkal tickets could be secured manually at the station counters during the crisis period.

Following the technical glitch, the IRCTC website was reportedly brought back online, and normal online Tatkal bookings have since resumed. Southern Railway had previously attempted to alleviate the Deepavali rush by announcing special train services connecting Chennai to several key cities, including Tirunelveli, Nagercoil, and Coimbatore, but the sudden crash underscores the immense pressure on the railway's booking infrastructure during peak festival periods.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Dr. R. B. Chaudhary