Within a week of its launch, Indian Railways upgraded IRCTC website sees 12% increase in page views; details

The IRCTC’s upgraded website, within a week of its launch, has started grabbing eyeballs. There has been a 12 per cent increase in the number of IRCTC website’s page views and a 37 per cent improvement in its response time, according to officials quoted in a PTI report. The upgraded Indian Railways’ e-ticketing website and mobile app have user-personalization features linked to user log-in, along with facilities for customization, one-stop train selection for ticket booking as well as integrated booking for accommodation and meals with tickets. The upgraded IRCTC website was launched on 31 December 2020 by Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, who had said it was a New Year gift to the nation.

According to an official quoted in the report, the upgraded IRCTC website has reduced the number of clicks for the user or customer while checking train tickets’ availability by providing all the information on a single page. For checking availability per ticket booking, the revamped IRCTC web portal has resulted in the elimination of the need for around 20 clicks. Earlier, train seat availability as well as train fares could be only seen after clicking on that train individually, which was around 20 additional clicks per ticket booking. The official further said that each click used to fetch data from the system, putting extra load on the website. The upgraded IRCTC website stores as well as displays all details about the tickets’ availability and fares for all trains on the train search page, he added.

At present, the IRCTC e-ticketing website has over six crore active users who use the web portal to book more than eight lakh tickets on daily basis. Nearly 83 per cent of the total reserved tickets of Indian Railways are booked through the IRCTC website. According to DJ Narain, Spokesperson, Indian Railways, since the year 2014, there has been a paradigm shift in the development of the national transporter. With such steps, Indian Railways is getting future ready. The revamped website of IRCTC is one such step in that direction, he said. The commitment of the national transporter to further improving the railway services is unflinching, he added.