IRCTC opens booking for special trains; Howrah-Delhi tickets sold within 20 minutes

The IRCTC website began booking tickets for special trains after 6 pm, two hours behind the scheduled opening time, and all AC-1 and AC-3 tickets for the Howrah-New Delhi train were sold within the first 10 minutes and all seats were reserved in 20 minutes.

The bookings were slated to open at 4 pm, but got delayed due to a technical glitch. The Howrah-New Delhi train is scheduled to begin its journey from Howrah at 5:05 pm on Tuesday.

As per the ticket availability on the website, all AC-1 and AC-3 tickets for the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi special trains were also sold by 6.30 pm.

By 9.15 pm, approximately 30,000 PNRs had been generated and the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) had issued more than 54,000 passengers for the next seven days.

Select passenger train services are beginning from May 12, between Delhi and some major cities across the country.

The railways said the data for the next seven days was being uploaded on the website in phases, which was leading to some glitches.

Users took to social media criticising the railways' ticketing arm for not being up and running on time.

"IRCTC down from sharp 4 O'clock. People are eager to go home really from railways at this #coronavirus time," a user tweeted .

Another person tweeted, "And the @IRCTCofficial server has gone bonkers...After 53 days the bookings open and the server seems to have gone down."

The Ministry of Railways addressed the problem and tweeted that the inconvenience was regretted.

"Data pertaining to special trains is being fed in the IRCTC website. Train ticket bookings will be available in a short while. Please wait. Inconvenience is regretted," it said.