Big Changes Ahead: IRCTC Boosts Capacity For Smooth Train Ticket Booking

New Delhi: Railway passengers often struggle with booking tickets online, with the process sometimes failing even after it's completed. As a result, they miss out on confirmed tickets, especially during high-demand periods like Tatkal bookings. To address this issue, the Indian Railway Tourism and Catering Corporation (IRCTC) is working to enhance the ticket booking system's capacity. The upgrade is expected to be finished by March, allowing passengers to book tickets online more smoothly.

Over 82 percent of all reserved railway tickets are sold online. The IRCTC website and mobile app have made ticket booking more convenient, eliminating the need for people to visit reservation centers. However, as more people opt for online ticket purchases, issues have also grown.

Currently, the system can handle about 26,000 online ticket bookings per minute. In 2019, the Railway's Standing Committee on Passenger Reservation System recommended boosting this capacity. In February, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav announced plans to increase IRCTC's ticket booking capacity to 2.25 lakh per minute.

IRCTC officials stated that the Next Generation E-Ticketing (NGET) system is currently being upgraded, and the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) is also modernizing the passenger reservation system. Both projects aim to be completed by March.

Additionally, efforts are underway to increase the capacity of the enquiry system (dial 139) from 4 lakh to 40 lakh per minute. These initiatives aim to resolve passengers' issues.

Some key statistics related to ticket sales through the IRCTC website and mobile app:

• The online ticketing service started in August 2002, with 27 tickets booked on the first day.
• The highest number of tickets sold in a minute was 28,434 on November 12, 2022.
• A record 2,23,193 Tatkal tickets were sold on March 22, 2024, between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m.
• In the year 2023-24, an average of 12.38 lakh tickets were sold per day.
• The highest number of tickets sold in a single day was 15.88 lakh on March 21, 2022.
• A total of 4530 lakh tickets, serving 8024 lakh passengers, were sold in 2023-24.
• As of March 2024, the IRCTC mobile app had been downloaded 12.20 crore times.

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