The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has taken a slew of measures including a 35 seconds compulsory wait to book tickets online through its website to facilitate hassle-free booking by genuine ticket seekers.
Now it is not possible to book ticket online before 35 seconds mandatory wait as it has been done to prevent faster booking by unscrupulous elements using any other means, said IRCTC Chairman and Managing Director AK Manocha here today.

Though it takes about 35 seconds minimum to fill the form followed by bank transaction online, there were cases of faster bookings by touts using certain automated softwares and thereby depriving genuine passengers.

We have taken certain security measures to prevent manipulation of the ticketing site and at the same time the site has been upgraded with a substantial investment to enable the system to book 15,000 tickets per minute, Manocha said.

Asked why 35 seconds wait, Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) MD Sanjay Das said this is the minimum time required to fill the information necessary for booking ticket online. We cannot make it any longer otherwise there will be a long queue which will again be counter productive.”

CRIS provides the software to IRCTC.

About the possibility of hacking the site to cause disruption in the service, Das said foolproof arrangements have been made to prevent any unauthorised intrusion or hacking of the site.

We have engaged Standardisation Ticketing and Quality Control, a website security audit expert, to check the system and they have certified that the site is safe, Manocha said.

“There has been attempts being made by about 18,500 times in the past to intrude into the system which can be called as denial of service attackers. We have taken necessary security measures to prevent such incidents,” Das said.

Online booking of train tickets has gone up to 58 per cent of the total tickets booked by railways.

IRCTC, a railway PSU launched next generation e-ticketing system in April, 2014 to cater to the increased online booking demand. It has spent about Rs 180 crore in the last five years to strengthen the system.

In order to facilitate the genuine passengers, Tatkal booking time has been staggered from 10 AM to 11 AM for AC classes and 11 AM to 12 AM for non-AC classes.

Manocha said a total of about two lakh Tatkal tickets are booked in a day.

In 2014-15, a total 183,021,842 tickets were booked on IRCTC ticketing site. There were about 14.9 crore tickets booked till December 2015.
by : PTI

Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said on Monday the NDA government would act on the Ram temple issue on the basis of the Supreme Court verdict and not on pro-Ram Mandir rhetoric of saffron leaders.
The Lok Janshakti Party leader said there was no question of relations between his party and BJP souring over the issue as the government would act on basis of the apex court verdict.
Also, Prime Minister’s politics revolves around development, not around controversial issues such as Ram Mandir, Babri Masjid and Common Civil Code among others, Paswan said.
“In the last two-and-half years of Modi’s rule, the Prime Minister has not even once spoken about Ram Mandir, Babri Masjid, Common Uniform Civil Code and Article 370, among others.
“His only aim is that there should be development in the country…how to solve the unrest among the youth, and strengthen the image of India, internationally, which no other Prime Minister could do as better as Modi,” he said.
To a question, he said: “There is no question of Modi’s image taking a beating and relations between LJP and BJP souring over the Ram Mandir issue because the NDA government will act on SC’s verdict, not on pro-Ram Mandir rhetoric of saffron leaders including Pravin Togadia.”
Replying to a query, Paswan said Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi does not have the moral right to demand capping of taxation percentage in the GST Bill because they did not do anything on it during the decade-rule of the UPA.
Paswan said Congress was misusing the strength of numbers in the Rajya Sabha to stall the GST Bill.
“The Bill should have been passed last year. They (Congress) are enjoying majority in Rajya Sabha, and they are misusing this position to their advantage.This is not good.”
Asked whether the GST dilemma is spoiling the image of Modi or Congress, he said more than the image of Congress, the image of the country has taken a massive beating.
“The image of Congress has taken a beating big time, but the biggest damage has been done on country’s image.”
by :PTI