Railway passengers, smoother ticket booking is coming: IRCTC to boost capacity from 37,000 to over 1 lakh per minute

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is working on a major technology upgrade aimed at making online train ticket booking faster and more reliable, particularly when demand surges during peak booking hours.

The planned changes are expected to address problems such as sudden website slowdowns, heavy traffic and service interruptions that passengers can face when thousands of users attempt to book tickets simultaneously.

IRCTC to upgrade its ticket booking infrastructure

According to The Indian Express, IRCTC plans to upgrade the infrastructure supporting its Next Generation e-Ticketing (NGET) platform.


The upgrade will cover key components including servers, storage, networking and software. The objective is to increase the platform's capacity so that it can process a much larger number of ticket bookings every minute.

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IRCTC has said its existing system has already reached a capacity of around 37,000 tickets per minute. Following the infrastructure upgrade, this could potentially rise to more than 1 lakh tickets per minute.

The corporation has also invested around Rs 150 crore in the modernisation of its passenger reservation system infrastructure, according to the report.

New backup system to keep IRCTC services running

IRCTC is also working on an active-active disaster recovery system to reduce disruptions if one part of the booking infrastructure stops functioning.

In simple terms, the system is designed to have two operational setups that can support the service. If one system encounters a problem, the other can continue handling traffic, reducing the chances of passengers being locked out of the booking platform.

According to The Indian Express, IRCTC is considering Secunderabad as the location for the disaster recovery facility.

The company has highlighted the importance of even a short disruption during high-demand booking periods, when passengers are competing for limited seats.

Why the IRCTC upgrade matters for passengers

Online ticket booking can become particularly challenging during peak periods, including the opening of bookings for popular trains and busy travel seasons.

A brief slowdown or outage can mean passengers lose their preferred train, class or seat before the transaction can be completed.

By increasing processing capacity and adding a stronger backup mechanism, IRCTC aims to make the booking platform better equipped to handle sudden spikes in traffic.

IRCTC recently launched a new beta website

The infrastructure changes come shortly after IRCTC introduced a new beta version of its website.

The redesigned platform was developed after ideas and suggestions shared by students from Malaviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT) during a meeting with Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

The new website focuses on a cleaner interface and a simpler layout, with the aim of helping passengers find important booking features more easily.

Fewer distractions while booking train tickets

The revamped IRCTC website has also removed several elements that could make the booking process unnecessarily distracting.

Changes include reducing unnecessary CAPTCHA checks, pop-ups and flashing graphics, creating a more streamlined interface for passengers.

The idea is to make it easier for users to focus on selecting their journey and completing the booking rather than navigating through multiple distracting elements.

Seat availability details made easier to find

Another change focuses on checking seat availability.

Instead of making passengers look through different sections for individual travel classes, the redesigned platform presents availability information for different classes together in one place.

This should make it easier for users to compare options before selecting a train and booking their tickets.

IRCTC simplifies the ticket booking process

The new interface also reduces the number of steps required to complete a booking.

Another convenience is the ability to save passenger details, meaning frequent travellers will not need to repeatedly enter the same information every time they book a ticket.

Together with the planned infrastructure upgrade and disaster recovery system, these changes are aimed at making IRCTC's online booking experience faster, simpler and more dependable, particularly when passenger demand is at its highest.


Inputs from agencies