IRCTC Plans to Re-Open Ticket Counter Bookings Again Amidst Lockdown

In recent major on-going developments across the country, IRCTC has moved a step forward again and has planned to open the counter ticket booking facilities for trains running currently amidst lockdown. Most of the people who were trying to book tickets via online modes were facing a lot of issues, once the railway announced a set of special trains to resume during lockdown 4.0. Major issues faced while booking services via IRCTC initially were slowing down of the web portal and sudden errors while planning the journey on the portal. In order to curb this issue and make the way easier, this step has been undertaken by the Railways ministry. Giving much relief to passengers at this time of corona crisis, the Indian Railways on Thursday said it will open ticket reservation counters at select stations from Friday. Issuing an order, the Railways said that it will also allow booking of reserved tickets from common service centres (CSC) and through ticketing agents with effect from Friday. To make this happen in a smooth way, the zonal railways have been instructed to decide and notify opening of reservation counters as per local needs and conditions. These ticket booking counters as well as the CSCs were shut since March 25 when the nationwide lockdown was announced by PM Modi. Making it further clear, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, earlier in the day, said that the booking of train tickets will resume at around 1.7 lakh CSCs across the country from Friday. “We have to take India towards normalcy,” he said in a series of tweets. Giving further details, the railways said the reservation counters will open from Friday in a phased manner along with dissemination of information about their respective locations and timings as per the local needs and conditions. “ It may be noted that the running of Shramik Special trains will continue to be handled by local state governments as per the existing protocols. The opening of these booking facilities will significantly reduce the burden on passengers, many of whom depend on counter tickets to travel,” it said. Recommended Reading: Comprehensive List of Shramik Special Trains & How to Book Them During Lockdown The current scenario being, passengers can only book tickets for 15 pairs of special trains running on the Rajdhani route and 100 pairs of special trains that are scheduled to begin operations from June 1. This is a welcome move, but the details and phased manner opening process is yet to be clarified by the Indian Railways. Railrecipe will keep you updated on every update regarding this. Subscribe to our blog updated and get all the updates delivered to your inbox.