This morning, the IRCTC website, which is used for booking train tickets in India, faced some major issues just as many people were trying to book Tatkal tickets. Visitors to the site were met with a message that said maintenance was taking place, which meant no bookings could be made for several hours. Many users took to social media to express their frustration, and complaints were also reported on Downdetector, a website that tracks online service problems. Fortunately, by noon, the site was back up and running, but IRCTC announced that many user-related services would be paused for two days.
According to a notice on the IRCTC site, users won't be able to register new accounts, change passwords, or update their profiles from December 9 at 4 PM to December 10 at 4 PM. The railway service has stated that this is due to planned maintenance.
During the time the website was down, Downdetector reported that around half of the users were unable to access the site, while others experienced problems with the mobile app. People shared various issues, such as not being able to log into their accounts, finding errors when checking train schedules, and difficulties in completing ticket bookings. These problems began around 10 AM.
In other news, the Indian Railways has rolled out a new service that allows passengers to change their boarding station up to four hours before their train departs, instead of the previous requirement of 24 hours. This change is designed to make traveling more convenient. Travelers can now make multiple changes to their boarding station without any extra fees. However, if any changes are made within 24 hours of the train’s departure, passengers will not be eligible for a refund on their ticket.
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