‘Just wanted to go home for Diwali’: IRCTC outage ahead of festivity frustrates millions

Thousands of users were left frustrated on Friday morning as the IRCTC website crashed amid a massive surge in train ticket bookings for the upcoming Diwali and Chhath Puja holidays.

According to outage tracker Downdetector, complaints about the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) portal being inaccessible spiked sharply around 10 am.

Users reported being unable to log in, make payments, or complete bookings as the website displayed an error message reading: “The server is temporarily unavailable due to service requests.”

The disruption coincided with the opening of Tatkal ticket bookings, which typically see a surge in traffic as travellers scramble for last-minute festive seats.

Officials have not yet issued a statement, but the outage is believed to be caused by the overwhelming number of simultaneous booking requests.

Social Media Flooded With Complaints

As the outage persisted, frustrated users flooded X (formerly Twitter) with complaints and memes, accusing the IRCTC of failing to handle predictable festive demand.

A user, @Shivam_Thak, wrote: “Once again, IRCTC servers down during Tatkal booking right in the middle of Diwali. When will IRCTC get a reliable system to handle peak traffic? Railways deserve better tech for the world’s largest passenger network.”

Another user, @HindustaniEngi1, shared his frustration, saying he had been trying to book a ticket for several days without success: “@IRCTCofficial @irctc_app @RailwaySeva fire your developers because they are of no use. I have not slept for days — just wanted to go home on Diwali. Tried two months back, same issue, and now on Tatkal as well. This was my last chance, and here we go again!”

Meanwhile, @Shekhar41168801 criticised the system’s inefficiency, writing:

“Every Tatkal or Premium Tatkal booking day, the IRCTC server collapses like it’s running on 2G. Common passengers get nothing, while agents & booking mafias grab all tickets in seconds. Shame that in 2025, India’s largest railway network can’t manage a simple online booking!”

Several users also urged the Railways to upgrade its infrastructure and improve transparency, arguing that repeated outages during peak travel seasons inconvenience millions of passengers every year.

With festive travel demand expected to remain high through next week, users hope IRCTC restores stability soon to ensure smoother bookings ahead of Diwali and Chhath Puja.