The IRCTC e-ticketing platform faced a major outage due to maintenance, causing disruptions in booking and managing tickets. This led to widespread frustration among users, particularly during the peak Tatkal booking hours.

Social Media Reactions

Many users expressed their anger on social media. One user wrote, “How can IRCTC website go down during tatkal timings??? Why are we even bothering about building a bullet train when we can’t even build a f**king website??” Another commented, “India reached the moon, but the Indian Railways ticket booking app can’t handle Tatkal booking without crashing. It’s 2024, and a stable server shouldn’t be rocket science!”

A third user said, “India is the largest IT hub in the world, yet it cannot fix a website. You can collect taxes but fail to provide proper services in return. What a shame!” Another added, “IRCTC portal is down and showing downtime message during peak tatkal booking hours.”

Downtime Message and Customer Support

Several users shared screenshots of the downtime message they received: “Due to maintenance activity, e-ticketing service will not be available. Please try later.” The platform also provided contact details for users to cancel tickets during the outage, including customer care numbers (14646, 08044647999 & 08035734999) and an email (etickets@irctc.co.in).

According to Downdetector, a website that tracks service disruptions, nearly 2,000 reports were made about the IRCTC outage by 11:48 am. The disruption affected users across India, including major cities like New Delhi, Kolkata, Surat, Mumbai, Lucknow, Jaipur, Chennai, and Bengaluru.