According to officials, the downtime will occur between 12:05 am and 2:05 am on the intervening night of November 1 and 2, during which the Railways will replace the old core switch with a new one at the Delhi PRS centre.

During this period, several essential services will remain temporarily unavailable, including ticket booking and cancellation, current reservation, PRS enquiries, charting, EDR (Electronic Data Record), PRIMES applications, and NTES (National Train Enquiry System) at Northern Railway counters.

Why the upgrade is necessary

Railways officials clarified that the temporary shutdown is part of a planned modernisation programme aimed at enhancing the processing speed, reliability, and security of its passenger reservation network. Once the system upgrade is complete, all services will automatically resume.

“This is a routine but essential technical upgrade. The replacement of old core switches with new ones will strengthen the backbone of the PRS infrastructure,” the Railways said in a statement.

Passenger advisory

Passengers have been advised to complete their bookings or cancellations either before or after the two-hour window to avoid inconvenience. Internet-based services such as IRCTC online booking will also be affected during this time frame.

The Indian Railways carries out such upgrades periodically to ensure seamless operations across its nationwide network. Officials assured that no long-term disruption is expected and that the update is confined only to the Delhi PRS zone for the specified duration.

The technical overhaul is part of the Railways’ broader initiative to digitally modernise its reservation and enquiry systems, improving user experience and operational efficiency across the country’s vast passenger network.