The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is preparing for a significant change in its ticket booking system. These changes will increase booking capabilities and make the process faster, eliminating issues that arise during peak load hours.
Essentially, Indian Railways (IRCTC) is working on a major technological upgrade aimed at improving the speed and reliability of online ticket bookings, especially during periods of high demand during peak booking hours. These modifications are expected to resolve issues such as sudden website slowdowns, traffic overload, and service outages that passengers face when thousands of users attempt to book tickets simultaneously.
According to Indian Express, IRCTC plans to modernize the infrastructure supporting the next-generation electronic ticketing platform (NGET). This modernization covers numerous components, including servers, data storage, network equipment, and software. After the update, the platform's potential throughput is expected to increase significantly, allowing tickets to be booked many times faster than before.
IRCTC has stated that the current system already achieves a capacity of about 37,000 tickets per minute. However, after the software update, this capacity could exceed 100,000 tickets per minute. According to the report, the corporation has also invested approximately 150 crore rupees in modernizing its passenger booking system.
With the implementation of an active disaster recovery system, a failure in any component of the IRCTC booking infrastructure will not lead to a complete shutdown or will minimize it. This new mechanism is designed using two redundant setups capable of ensuring continuous service operation. If one system encounters a problem, the second can continue processing traffic, reducing the likelihood that passengers will abandon the booking platform. Indian Express notes that IRCTC is considering Secunderabad as the location for the disaster recovery function. The company emphasized the importance of minimizing downtime during periods of high demand when passengers compete for limited seats.
In the new version of the IRCTC website, many elements that could unnecessarily complicate the booking process have been removed. These include unnecessary CAPTCHA checks, pop-up windows, and flashing graphics. This has allowed for a simpler interface for users, enabling them to focus on selecting a journey and completing the booking, rather than being distracted by complexities.