IRCTC's new website makes Tatkal ticket booking faster
What's the story
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has made significant improvements to its beta website, resulting in faster Tatkal ticket bookings. The revamped platform went live on July 15 and has already shown a notable increase in booking efficiency. Bookings completed within the first three minutes of the Tatkal window have increased by over 5% since the launch of this new site, according to recent data from IRCTC.
Enhanced performance
Major overhaul of railway reservation system
The revamped IRCTC website has also improved bookings completed within five minutes by 3% and those completed within 30 minutes by over 2%.
These improvements are part of a major overhaul of India's railway reservation system in recent years.
The new platform is expected to handle over 1.5 lakh bookings per minute, nearly five times more than the previous capacity of around 32,000 bookings per minute.
Enhanced enquiries
Significant improvements in enquiry handling
The new Passenger Reservation System (PRS) will also significantly improve enquiry handling, from the current four lakh enquiries per minute to over 40 lakh per minute.
The redesign has made these improvements possible by introducing a streamlined booking process, reducing repetitive CAPTCHAs, minimizing pop-up interruptions, and providing a cleaner interface.
The removal of CAPTCHA during the booking process has eliminated one of the common hurdles passengers faced while trying to secure tickets during the limited Tatkal booking window.
User-friendly updates
Streamlined booking process and digital ticketing trend
The revamped platform also lets passengers select their preferred seat choices while booking and offers a fare calendar to compare ticket prices across different travel dates.
Instead of checking availability for each class separately, users can now see it all on one screen, significantly reducing the time spent searching for suitable tickets.
These improvements have contributed to a broader shift toward digital ticketing, with 89.84% of railway tickets booked online in July 2026.