New Delhi, May 11 (IANS): The Indian Railways on Monday issued reservation to more than 54,000 passengers within three hours of commencement of booking.

On Sunday, the Indian Railways had announced that 15 pairs of ‘special air-conditioned' trains will depart from New Delhi to several parts of the country.

"By 9.15 p.m., approximately 30,000 PNRs had been generated and reservations were issued to more than 54,000 passengers," Indian Railways said in a statement.

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) had started taking bookings at 4 p.m. on Monday, but within minutes its website crashed due to heavy online traffic as passengers waiting for over a month-and-a-half immediately started logging into it.

The railways quickly issued a statement, saying, "Data pertaining to special trains is being fed in the IRCTC website. Train ticket bookings will be available in a short while. Please wait."

After a delay of two hours, the bookings commenced.

The railways had suspended passenger, mail and express train services on March 25 in the wake of the nationwide lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since then, the railways has been running freight and special parcel trains to ensure the supply of essential items.

The railways has started to run Shramik Special trains from May 1 onwards to transport stranded migrant workers, students, pilgrims and tourists.