Railway Minister P. K. Bansal has admitted that there have been several issues reported with the IRCTC website by the customers in the country.

While speaking in Rajya Sabha, he said that there have been complaints that the website went inaccessible during morning hours and that some ticket bookings were not confirmed even after the money was deducted by the website.

"During the opening hours of booking, due to a sudden surge in online traffic, the IRCTC e-ticketing website transactions sometimes experience slowdown," he said.

Between 20 and 25 complaints were received every day against the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp (IRCTC) during the peak booking period. He said that the come users complained that the money was deducted from credit cards several times for making a booking for single ticket. The minister said that online traffic during Tatkal bookings also caused the website to slowdown.

About recommendations for improvements, Railways Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said, "The Expert Group for Modernisation of Indian Railways chaired by Sam Pitroda and the High Level Safety Review Committee chaired by Anil Kakodkar have submitted recommendations primarily regarding ways and means for modernisation of railways, and a road map for improving safety."

The panel has estimated an investment requirement of Rs 5.6 lakh crore over the 12th and 13th Five Year Plan terms.