441: Limited Berths, Costly Tickets: Day 1 of Re-opening of Railways

After nearly two months of a total shutdown, the Indian Railways opened up its services again on 12 May with limited offers. Fifteen passenger trains have begun running between New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai and also go via Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon,  Ahmedabad, and Jammu. Even as it brought some relief to the stranded citizens, the re-opening didn't go without hiccups. Indian Railways wasn't nearly braced for the number of passengers who are desperate to go back home. As the bookings opened up on the IRCTC website, approximately 30,000 tickets got booked within 3 hours and the website crashed eventually from a huge surge in user traffic. But how was day one of the opening like? How did passengers manage a ticket for themselves? Tune in to The Big Story! Producer and Host: Shorbori Purkayastha Guests: Zijah Sherwani, Sr Producer, The Quint Vrinda Bhandari, Supreme Court advocate, of-counsel for the Internet Freedom Foundation Editor: Shelly Walia Music: Big Bang Fuzz Also Listen to: Aarogya Setu App Row: Health Surveillance or State Surveillance? (https://audioboom.com/posts/7575600-aarogya-setu-app-row-health-surveillance-or-state-surveillance) Listen to The Big Story podcast on: Apple: https://apple.co/2AYdLIl (https://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=https%3A%2F%2Fapple.co%2F2AYdLIl&redir_token=G9sQMbbppKv-LEFD29gDyTmPMzt8MTU3MTM4MDU5NkAxNTcxMjk0MTk2&v=xkpX1V6aUFo&event=video_description) Saavn: http://bit.ly/2oix78C (https://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F2oix78C&redir_token=G9sQMbbppKv-LEFD29gDyTmPMzt8MTU3MTM4MDU5NkAxNTcxMjk0MTk2&v=xkpX1V6aUFo&event=video_description) Google Podcasts: http://bit.ly/2ntMV7S (https://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F2ntMV7S&redir_token=G9sQMbbppKv-LEFD29gDyTmPMzt8MTU3MTM4MDU5NkAxNTcxMjk0MTk2&v=xkpX1V6aUFo&event=video_description) Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2IyLAUQ (https://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=https%3A%2F%2Fspoti.fi%2F2IyLAUQ&redir_token=G9sQMbbppKv-LEF