IRCTC website crashes as train online ticket booking opens

The Indian railways is yet to begin full operations of trains but the IRCTC website has already crashed, with officials suspecting that high demand for a limited number of tickets may be the reason for the crash.

The crash was noticed around Monday afternoon, hours before the railways was supposed to start ticket sales for the 30 special trains running between different states to transport stranded passengers.

An official in IRCTC's head office in Delhi said they were still looking into the exact reason for the crash. "We are not sure whether it is due to a surge in the number of visitors or if there is another problem. The website has handled large amounts of traffic earlier," he said.

The official further said that not all visitors were coming to the website for ticket bookings. "The news that railways is running special trains may have made many to check the booking situation, leading to crash," he said.

Many passengers who experienced the inconvenience took to Twitter to complain about the problem.

At 4.30 pm, the Ministry of Railways said in a tweet that data pertaining to special trains was being fed in the IRCTC website: "Train ticket bookings will be available in a short while. Please wait. Inconvenience is regretted."