Chhath Puja 2025 Travel Rush Breaks IRCTC! Users Report Major Booking Issues

What Happened Today?  

On October 25, the website for Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) went down during Chhath Puja 2025. Thousands of people access train tickets to go home and celebrate Chhath, but could not access the IRCTC site and app. The IRCTC website and app both returned error messages many users, and it would not load at all for others.

Why is This Happening?  

The peak load for passengers booking tickets was the primary reason why IRCTC went down especially for special Tatkal trains. When lots of people access the website altogether, it overloads the servers which can cause IRCTC to crash, freeze or in some cases simply not load. These situation usually happens during holidays and festivals such as Chhath and Diwali when everyone is trying to go home as well as back into the city quickly. 

What is IRCTC Doing?  

IRCTC replied to complaints on social media and X (known as Twitter), requesting people to raise this with a complaint hopefully to IRCTC’s online grievance office. There was not official announcement that IRCTC made, but someone in IRCTC support assure users that a technical team was onboard in trying to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. By the midday on October 25, the site was working again for most of the passengers.

What Should You Do?

• When possible, try booking your tickets outside of designated peak Tatkal hours.
• Keep regularly checking the IRCTC site for updates.
• Use additional booking apps, such as Paytm or RailYatri, if the IRCTC site doesn’t work.
• If it’s related to finding tickets in an emergency, use the email or customer care number on the IRCTC error page. 

Is There Any Help

This outage represents an issue with IRCTC’s need to enhance server capacity and related digital systems during the maximum travel times such as festivals. Regular opportunities to do necessary maintenance and upgrade and strengthen technology can ease some of the major issues going forward.

The information is based on user reports and available news sources. For official updates or assistance, visit the IRCTC website or e-query portal.