Indian Railways is going to bring out a new e-ticketing service like the IRCTC, says Economic Times. The new service is meant only for users and not for agents. IRCTC allows both agents and passengers to book tickets from its site. "irctc login" was the most searched term on Google India in the year 2010. The site is often overloaded and unusable. This is particularly so at 8 a.m. on Fridays and Wednesdays. The huge traffic on the site results in a very slow experience while booking. The payment and booking often fails.
One hopes that the new website would go on to be much better than the IRCTC. Of primary importance would be scalability - it should handle heavy load from it's users and still provide a reasonably fast experience. Improved user experience would also be welcome. Another site that they own - http://indianrail.gov.in/ - is a brilliant example of how a website should NOT be designed.
Here's to the Indian Railways wishing them the best in their endeavour. Be tuned for more updates :)