In yet another passenger-friendly initiative by authorities, Indian Railways e-ticketing timing has been extended by the IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation) on its portal by as much as 15 minutes to 11.45 pm – check irctc.co.in for latest update.
Before the introduction of the new timing, Indian Railways allowed passengers to book tickets through e-ticketing feature till 11.30 p.m.
Under the earlier arrangement, the IRCTC used to shut down its main server for one hour every day – from 11.30 p.m. to 12.30 a.m. – for maintenance and repair. During this one hour, e-ticketing service was fully closed.
With the introduction of the new system on September 20, IRCTC’s main server will be closed for 45 minutes only-from 11.45 p.m. to 12.30 a.m.
It is because of such an arrangement that passengers can now avail e-ticketing facility for an extra 15 minutes.
Recently, IRCTC, a ‘mini Ratna’ PSU of Indian Railways, had imported five new HP Itanium servers from Singapore to speed up e-ticketing operations on its digital platform. Earlier on June 1, it had installed two Linux-enabled servers, substantially raising the booking capacity of e-tickets.
“The introduction of these new high-speed servers has substantially enhanced the website performance, including log-in time and payment gateway. That is why Indian Railways passengers are getting 15 more minutes for e-ticketing service,” said Dr. A K Manocha, Chairman and Managing Director, IRCTC.
The average daily sale by Indian Railways of train tickets through the portal, which is the world’s second busiest with 3 crore registered users, is around 5.5 to 6 lakh.
The extended time period will also be available to passengers on the ‘current counters’ at railway stations, where tickets can be booked and cancelled.