The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is set to introduce a redesigned version of its ticket-booking website, aiming to make online train reservations faster, smoother and more reliable for passengers.
The upgraded platform comes after growing complaints from users, especially during Tatkal booking hours when heavy traffic often leads to failed payments, slow pages and difficulty securing tickets.
Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had announced the website upgrade last month during an event in Rajasthan, where students highlighted the challenges faced while booking tickets through the existing IRCTC portal.
The new website will bring several changes designed to improve the booking experience. Passengers will be able to select seat preferences during booking, compare fares across different travel dates through a fare calendar and view seat availability across multiple train classes on a single screen.
The platform will also support multiple Indian languages and integrate services for groups such as Divyangjan, students and patients, making the booking process more accessible.
One of the key changes is the reduction of unnecessary pop-ups, repeated CAPTCHA checks and other interruptions that frequently affect users during peak booking periods.
The biggest upgrade is expected in the website’s handling capacity. The new system is designed to process more than 1.5 lakh ticket bookings per minute, significantly higher than the existing capacity of around 32,000 bookings per minute.
The Passenger Reservation System (PRS) backend is also being upgraded to manage over 40 lakh enquiries per minute, compared with around 4 lakh currently.
The website launch is part of a larger modernisation effort by Indian Railways. Alongside digital improvements, the ministry is introducing reforms in areas such as freight transportation, contractor management, worker skill certification and railway land acquisition.
The upgraded IRCTC platform is expected to provide passengers with a faster and more convenient way to book train tickets while reducing the problems commonly experienced during high-demand periods like Tatkal reservations.
