There are concerns over the delay in the implementation of electronic ticketing solution on the Lagos-Ibadan train service 20 months after five firms were shortlisted, Daily Trust can report.
It would be recalled that five firms were shortlisted for the train service and the Warri-Itakpe Train Service out of 24 firms that bidded for the contract.
The contract was the provision of electronic ticketing solutions for the train services to replace the manual system currently in place.
Our correspondent reports that allegations of ticket racketeering have been rife at the train station because of the manual system in place.
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At the Lagos-Ibadan Train Stations, passengers can only access the train by purchasing tickets at the designated ticketing counters and only cash payment is accepted.
Several passengers have narrated how they paid for the service without being issued tickets.
A Twitter (X) user recently narrated how some members of staff were charging below the approved fare from some passengers instead of buying tickets.
“Like half of the passengers inside this coach 8 don’t have a ticket. Even the ticket checking agents are all in it. I am tired of the corruption at every level in this country,” the user said.
Another passenger also told our correspondent he boarded the ticket from Ibadan to Lagos one day and he was not given a ticket on the excuse that the ticketing counters have closed.
“So we were asked to enter a particular coach where a staff member came to collect cash from us without being issued any ticket. I specifically challenged them but they said it would be recorded. You can be sure that money is going into private pockets,” the passenger who did not give his details said.
Daily Trust reports that the introduction of e-ticketing which was earlier done on the Abuja-Kaduna route was to eliminate ticket racketeering and eliminate fraud.
As far back as November 2021, the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) presented the Outline Business Case (OBC) certificate for the proposed electronic ticketing solutions for the two Train Services to the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC).
The Federal Government projected to generate N12.4bn and N9.6bn on the Lagos-Ibadan and Warri-Itakpe train services respectively in the next four years.
The OBC certificate otherwise known as the Certificate of Compliance implies that the planned Public Private Partnership (PPP) project for the e-ticketing solution is bankable and commercially viable.
But this has remained elusive as the bureaucratic process was said to be stalling the process even as the manual ticketing exposes the services to revenue leakages.
Our correspondent however learnt that two firms have been selected as preferred bidders but they are yet to be unveiled.
A source privy to the ongoing process said, “I can tell you the process is almost concluded and two bidders have been selected as the preferred bidders but I don’t know whether the two bidders would further be reduced to one or one for each of the train services.”
When contacted yesterday, the Managing Director of NRC, Engr. Fidet Okhiria simply said the e-ticketing would be ready before the end of the month.
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