Ministry of Railways issues clarification regarding IRCTC website

Clarification of Ministry of Railways Regarding Unprecedented Increase of Traffic on Irctc Website (E-Ticketing Website of Indian Railways)

The Ministry of Railways issued the following statement today regarding its E-ticketing website ITCTC

• The Morning Hits on Irctc Website go up from 10 million (1 crore) to a Peak of 30 Million (3 crore).
• Additional Computer Server Being Put in Place to Augment the Booking Capacity of the Irctc Site to Cope up with the Increased Traffic.

Complaints have been received regarding intermittent malfunctioning of IRCTC Website particularly during morning time in last one week. The complaints relates to the following:-

(1) Inability to access the site

(2) Failure to complete the transaction

(3) Long queuing/waiting time

(4) Improper ticket transaction

(5) Forced logout

The Ministry of Railways would like to submit that the IRCTC Website has capacity for a defined level of transactions. However, since 21st May 2015 an unprecedented level of train cancellations have been forced on the railway system by agitation on Kota-Mathura route which is still continuing. This section which bears the major traffic between South and North and North to West has been cut off due to agitation. Till 1300 hrs of 27th May 2015, 208 mail/express trains have been cancelled, 9 partially cancelled and 109 trains have been diverted on alternative routes. This cancellation/diversion has lead to an unprecedented level of cancellations of reservations, revised reservation requests, enquiries etc.

It may be noted that since the agitation started, more than 1.9 lakh cancellations are being done daily against 1.1 lakh cancellations being done normally by IRCTC Website, an increase of 70%. It may be noted that cancellation of one journey normally leads to a revised application for reservation for anticipated future date. This has lead to a sudden upsurge of hits on the IRCTC Website. Further, it may also be noted that once a passenger cancels a ticket, he tries to go in for Tatkal and as a result the search has been particularly surged from 10.30 in the morning which is normally Tatkal period. The number of hits between 10 AM to 11 AM which were normally in the range of 10 million have gone up 22.3 million since start of agitation, touching a peak of 30 million on 22nd May 2015.

IRCTC Website is not geared for such abnormal increase of traffic and hence the reported problems. However, steps have taken to mitigate the problem in this moment of crisis and additional server is being put in place to augment the booking capacity of the site and to cope with the increased traffic.