Railway Booking, Cancellation To Remain Shut For 6 Hours Daily

New Delhi: Booking and cancellation services of Indian Railway trains will not be available for six hours every night for the next seven days.

The Ministry of Railways announced on Sunday that the “lean” business hours of the night will be used to upgrade the system data with new train numbers and other relevant details to return to post-COVID levels of service in a phased manner.

“As part of Railways’ efforts to normalize passenger services and revert back in a phased manner to the pre-Covid levels of service, the Railways Passenger Reservation System (PRS) will be shut down for 6:00 hours during the lean business hours of the night for next 7 days,” the ministry said in a statement.

Train bookings and cancellations are done online through the IRCTC portal and app.

The six-hour closure of aforesaid services will start at 11.30 pm on Sunday (November 14) and end at 5.30 am on Monday (November 15). It will continue during these hours on all nights ending with the last scheduled activity on the intervening night of November 20 and 21.

Two days ago, Railways announced that COVID-19 special trains will be discontinued and previous train numbers (without the 0), fares restored.

Among the changes to be made in the software is for train bookings and other Railways-related services.

“During the period railway personnel will ensure the advance charting for the trains to start during the affected timings. Except for the PRS services, all other enquiry services including 139 services will continue uninterrupted,” the ministry informed.