The Indian Railways issued reservations to more than 54,000 passengers within three hours of commencement of booking. They had announced that 15 ‘special air-conditioned’ trains would depart from New Delhi to several parts of the country.
“By 9.15 p.m., approximately 30,000 PNRs had been generated and reservations were issued to more than 54,000 passengers,” Indian Railways said in a statement.
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) had started taking bookings at 4 p.m., but its website crashed within minutes due to heavy online traffic. Passengers had been waiting for over a month-and-a-half to log in for reservations.
“Data pertaining to special trains is being fed in the IRCTC website. Train ticket bookings will be available in a short while. Please wait,” read the statement on the website at the time.
After a delay of two hours, the bookings commenced.
The railways had suspended passenger, mail and express train services on March 25 in the wake of the nationwide lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fight the pandemic.
Since then, the railways has been running freight and special parcel trains to ensure the supply of essential items.
The railways has started to run Shramik Special trains from the first week of May to transport stranded migrant workers, students, pilgrims and tourists.
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