MUMBAI: Investigations in the ticket booking for the Ganapati festival has revealed that during the first four minutes of the opening date, a staggering 54,401 bookings were made for the period of September 15 to 21 as against the available capacity of 35406 seats, indicating a massive demand that far exceeds the availability of berths.
Following, complaints of existence of a racket involved in booking railway tickets an investigation was conducted.
CR’s chief public relations officer Shivraj Manaspure said, “On the opening of ARP bookings in May 2023 for the first four minutes i.e. 8 am to 8:04 am, total of 54,401 passengers booked their tickets for the period from September 15 to 21. Out of these, 5,875 passengers were booked through physical counters, while 48,526 passengers made online bookings.”
Comparatively, during the same period last year, a total of 25,995 passengers booked their tickets, with 6,010 through counters and 19,985 through online platforms.
CR spokesperson said, “This year, there has been more than double bookings by the passengers, reflecting a significant rise in demand.”
The inquiry revealed that In the opening week of this year's Ganapati Festival Season, 5,087 passengers were confirmed through counter ticket bookings, and 19,226 passengers were confirmed through internet bookings.
In contrast, during the opening week of last year, 5,482 passengers who booked through counters were confirmed, and 11,844 passengers who booked online were confirmed. Thus number of seats this year have also increased by 6987 seats.
Investigations revealed that the booking share of counter tickets from the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, and Gujarat was 86.86%, a slight decline from 93.69% last year. Bookings from other states have shown marginal growth and a significantly high number of reservations at certain counters in smaller stations.
Moreover, IRCTC has identified 164 personal user IDs to be of suspected nature based on various parameters such as incomplete profiles, disposable email IDs, and ticket history. The report highlights a list of 181 PNRs tickets booked by these users, out of which 102 PNRs were booked within the first minute. This matter is currently under further investigation.
