The initial pubic offering (IPO) for IRCTC saw a massive demand for its shares in the three days of its issue.

Investors bid for more than 225 crore shares in comparison to 2.02 crore shares on offer, as per data on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) as of 6 pm on Thursday, the last day of the offer. The data showed that the IRCTC IPO received bids worth Rs 72,000 crore at the upper price band when compared to the government's intention to raise Rs 645 crore.

Through the IPO, government is divesting 12.6 percent in IRCTC, the ticketing and tourism arm of the Indian Railways. Shares were offered at a price band of Rs 315-320 each with a Rs 10 per share discount to retail investors and company employees.

The retail portion of the issue was subscribed 14.7 times, employees' portion 5.8 times, high net worth individuals' portion 355 times and institutional investors' part was subscribed 109 times.

The issue was open for subscription between 30 September and 3 October. Following the listing, the Government of India's stake in the entity through will reduce its total share to 87.4 percent.

This is the fourth public offering from a state-owned Railway company after Rail Vikas Nigam, RITES and Ircon.

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