For the second time in December, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website and and mobile application are facing a major outage, impacting its e-ticketing services. The disruption, which began around 9.47 am on Thursday, left passengers unable to access the platform. A message on the website reads: “DUE TO MAINTENANCE ACTIVITY, E-TICKETING SERVICE WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE. PLEASE TRY LATER. FOR CANCELLATION/FILE TDR, PLEASE CALL AT CUSTOMER CARE NO. 14646, 08044647999 & 08035734999 OR MAIL AT etickets@irctc.co.in.”

While IRCTC has attributed the downtime to maintenance, there is no clear timeline for the resolution.

Recurring issues 

This follows a similar outage on December 9, when both the website and mobile app went down around 10 am, further frustrating users who rely on the platform for their bookings.

The outage has created major challenges, particularly for passengers trying to book tickets under the Tatkal Scheme. Established by Indian Railways, the Tatkal Scheme allows passengers to book tickets at very short notice. Tatkal bookings for non-AC classes open at 11 am on the day before the train's scheduled departure, while bookings for AC classes open at 10 am. Many passengers, attempting to secure tickets during these critical booking windows, have expressed frustration online, reporting issues like login failures, search errors, and incomplete transactions.

The recurring nature of these outages highlights persistent concerns with the IRCTC platform's digital infrastructure. On December 9, approximately 50% of website users were unable to access the platform, with 40% of app users experiencing functionality issues. Another 10% faced errors when trying to complete bookings, causing further frustration, particularly during the peak Tatkal booking period.