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Rail website totters day after ‘major’ changes
A day after the railways announced major changes in the tatkal system, its website for buying tickets again reported sick.
A day after the railways announced major changes in the tatkal system, its website for buying tickets again reported sick.
On Friday, the railways announced that it had improved the tatkal booking service by blocking single users from buying more than two tickets and bringing in its IT anti-fraud team to keep a check on the website.
Sources in the railways, however, said the IRCTC website is struggling to keep up with the number of users and requires an overhaul. They also stressed the need for an alternative Net-based system.
Passengers thought that the changes made to its system by the railways were nothing more than eyewash. “The tatkal booking would start at 10am, instead of 8am, from July 10. But this won’t help. Even dedicated counters for tatkal bookings won’t do any good,” said Mayank Jain, a passenger.
On Saturday morning, during the tatkal hours, the website failed to tackle the rush and was on the verge of collapse. Users complained that even after 10am, they couldn’t buy rail tickets.
On Friday, northern railways general manager VK Gupta claimed that over a million fake user accounts had been deleted by the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). This, however, did not improve the situation.
IRCTC claimed that nothing was wrong with its website and around 71,000 tatkal tickets were sold between 8am and 10am. “There has been a substantial improvement in the booking numbers on Saturday as we sold over 70,000 tickets,” said an IRCTC spokesperson.
The railways also claims that it has verified over 50 lakh phone numbers in an effort to deter touts.
