IRCTC website not opening, booking for 15 special trains pushed to 18:00 hours now

The IRCTC website, which was to take bookings for 15 special trains being run from May 12, seemed unable to take the load of visitors as thousands of passengers tried to book their tickets at 16:00 hours, when it was slated to open.

The Railways said the booking will now commence at 18:00 hours.

While no official reason was stated as to why the website did not open, sources said "it did not crash, but data is being uploaded". They urged passengers to "please wait".

Last checked, the IRCTC site was not even opening its home page.

Till 4 pm, the Railways had not been able to publicise the train list or timings of the departure of the 15 trains.