E-Paper
Online booking of tickets on IRCTC delayed, Railways blames Cyclone Amphan
Only online e-ticketing will be done through IRCTC website or through Mobile App, and no tickets will be booked across the reservation counter on any railway station, the Railways said.
The online booking of tickets, which was scheduled to begin at 10 am on Thursday, was delayed. The Railways cited Cyclone Amphan’s landfall and technical issues for the delay and said they are working to fix it.
“Firing of trains is a time consuming exercise and it means actual loading of all information on train journey, its booking parametres etc and this is done simultaneously from both the originating zone and terminating zone. Due to cyclonic conditions in the East, the firing from that end is expected to be impacted for some time,” a Railways official said.
“All are advised to have patience. Indian Railways is doing this graded restoration to ensure that maximum persons can move in the conditions,” the official added.
The official also said that since many people will log in at the same time, it will take some time to fire up the reservation system.
Only online e-ticketing will be done through IRCTC website or through Mobile App, and no tickets will be booked across the reservation counter on any railway station, the Railways said.
The ARP (advance reservation period) shall be maximum 30 days and RAC and wait list will be generated as per extant rules, it said. Those with waiting list tickets will not be permitted to board the train, the Railways added.
No unreserved (UTS) tickets will be issued and no tickets will be issued on board to any passenger during the journey, it said, adding no tatkal (instant) and premium tatkal booking shall be permitted.
The Railways had on Wednesday issued a list of 100 pairs of trains that it will operate from June 1, putting in operation popular trains such as Durontos, Sampark Krantis, Jan Shatabdis and Poorva Express.
It said that these will have both air conditioned (AC) and non-air conditioned classes and fully reserved coaches.
These special trains will run on the pattern of regular trains, covering tier 2 cities and also major state capitals like Mumbai and Kolkata, the Railways said.
Just like the 15 pairs of special trains being run on the Rajdhani routes, on these trains too face cover/mask and Aarogya Setu app will be compulsory and passengers have to reach the station 90 minutes before the scheduled departure of train.
Only asymptomatic passengers would be allowed to travel and those found symptomatic will get full refund, railways said.
These special services shall be in addition to the existing Shramik special trains being run since May 1 and Special AC trains being run since May 12.
