No fewer than 24 companies have bidded for the electronic ticketing solutions for the Lagos-Ibadan and the Warri-Itakpe train services.
The Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) opened the bid Monday after the expiration of the advertisement for the design, development, deployment and management of secure E-ticketing solution for both rail services.
The project is on a Build, Operate and Transfer, (BOT) which has also received the nod of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) which had earlier presented an Outline Business Case (OBC) certificate declaring that the project is “bankable and commercially viable.”
The bidders unveiled yesterday consisted of 11 companies for the Lagos-Ibadan rail service and 13 companies for the Warri-Itakpe axis. However, two companies have been disqualified at the Opening bid ceremony for noncompliance to the guidelines stated in the adverts.
The NRC Director of Procurement, Benjamin Iloanusi, explained that the formal bid opening involved opening of documents and ticking in accordance with guidelines stated in the advert and any company which failed to adhere to the guidelines as stated in the advert or defaulted as regards late submission would be disqualified.
The Director Operations, Niyi Alli, stated that the Opening Request is just a part of the entire process which will see the evaluation of their documents and ensure the companies meet the criteria.
“We are ensuring that we will follow the rules to the latter. At the end of the entire process, four bidders will be chosen; one preferred bidder and 1 reserved bidder each from the two lots”, he said.
The Director Transport Department of ICRC, Dr. Emmanuel Onwodi who monitored the process described it as highly competitive, expressing optimism that the best would emerge.
“This is the kind of competition that we are expecting so that the Government would have value for money at the end of the day and we can further avoid any form of abandoned projects,” he said.