NRC’s E-ticketing System Gets ICRC Nod
The move by the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to automate its ticketing system has reached the final stage with the Infrastructural Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) also approving the process, Daily Trust can report.
It was learnt that the process, which started two years ago, has now reached the final stage where the preferred bidder would be selected. The final selection may come up any moment from now, according to a source who spoke with our correspondent, yesterday.
Daily Trust reports that the NRC had started the process to introduce electronic ticketing system which would enable it sell tickets online to passengers.
The process, handled by the procurement unit of the corporation, started with the advertisement for interested companies to bid in line with the procurement law of the country.
It would be recalled that over 1000 companies applied after the closure of the bid while 12 companies were prequalified (shortlisted) last year.
As the process was being finalized, it was learnt that ICRC wrote to NRC last year to demand for details of the process, insisting it needed to be carried along.
A source told Daily Trust that the ICRC was initially not carried along because the e-ticketing system “is not a concession programme and we believe ICRC is charge of infrastructure concession.
“We are soliciting for companies that have the competence and capabilities to manage the e-ticketing system and assist us in the sale of tickets. It is not that we are concessioning,” a source said.
However, another source told our correspondent that the ICRC must have been drafted in by the Ministry of Transportation because of the plan of the Federal Government to concession the railway.
When contacted, the Director of Procurement, Mr. Ben Iloani, told our correspondent that ICRC has approved the process and that the final unveiling of the preferred bidders would be done very soon.
“I am driving that process to the end by God’s grace”, he said, adding, “we are going to do the final selection and we are going to have a preferred bidder and a reserved bidder.”
