Standards gauge operations: NRC receives 24 bids for Lagos/Ibadan, Warri/Itakpe e-ticketing contracts
*11 firms bid for the Lagos-Ibadan e-ticketing
*13 companies bid for Warri-Itakpe e-ticketing
Oru Leonard
The Nigerian Railway Corporation says it has received 24 bids on open requests for the Lagos/Ibadan and Warri/Itakpe e-ticketing solutions for standards gauge railway operations under the Public/Private/Partnership arrangement.
The Managing Director of the Corporation, Fidet Okhiria, made the disclosure in Lagos on Monday at the opening of the request.
Mr Okhiria, represented by Director Operations of NRC, Niyi Alli, said that bidders that did not meet the criteria for the open request would be disqualified.
He said that the operation would be on a build, operate and transfer basis.
The managing director said 11 companies bid for the Lagos-Ibadan e-ticketing operation while 13 companies bid for Warri-Itakpe e-ticketing standards gauge operation.
Mr Okhiria said the introduction of e-ticketing had improved passenger turnout at the Abuja-Kaduna standards gauge operation.
He said that after the evaluation stage of the procurement process, only four bidders would be chosen.
The Director, Transport Infrastructure, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, Emmanuel Onwodi, said at the event that there would be two stages in the bidding – request for qualifications which is the opening of the bids and request for proposals where bidders would submit financial and technical bids before going into negotiations.
“This opening request involves checking the eligibility criteria for evaluation based on set criteria.
“We discovered that some other bidders brought their documents after the closing of the advert, which is not allowed in procurement.
“A total of 11 companies bidded for Lagos/Ibadan e-ticketing operation while 13 companies bidded for Warri/Itakpe standards gauge operation.
“We have a good number to look at, that is the kind of competition we are expecting so that government can have value for money because the e-ticketing will be handled by any party that has both financial and technical capability to deliver,” Mr Onwodi said.
