- As NRC opens bid for e-ticketing bidders
By Adeyinka Aderibigbe
The Minister of Transportation Sen. Saidu Alkali is scheduled to visit the Nigerian Railway Corporation Headquarters, Oyingbo, on Tuesday.
It would be his maiden visit to the nation’s oldest corporation and operator of the nation’s national railway carrier, since his appointment by President Bola Tinubu last month.
The Nation recalled that the new minister also last month had an inaugural meeting with the NRC management team led by the Managing Director, Engr Fidet Okhiria at the Bukar Dipcharima House, at the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
It is expected that the new minister is expected to hold meeting with the NRC’s Board of Directors before he would be conducted round the nation’s railway rolling and fixed stock.
The minister is expected to go from the Mobolaji Johnson Train Station at Alagomeji, Yaba, from where he is expected to take a ride to Apapa Port. It was not too clear whether the minister would like to touch the Abeokuta and Ibadan Stations.
Alkali coming is to enable him come to a fair assessment of the nation’s railway assets and liabilities, with a view to coming to terms with how to continue with the modernisation of the railway assets.
Alkali’s visit is coming on a day the Corporation is also opening the tenders bid for the operation of the e-ticketing on the nation’s remaining railway networks of Lagos-Ibadan and Itakpe-Warri Standard Gauge, known as the LITS and the WITS.
About 15 companies had bid to operate e-ticketing platform on the two national rail carriage to reduce cash transactions in ticketing process.
The preferred bidder who will be selected on Tuesday would be expected to kickstart the e-ticketing platform in Lagos and Warri.
Recall that the Federal Ministry of Transportation had been in charge of all modes of transportation. Until last month, the ministry was the supervising ministry for land and waterways transportation since air transportation became a stand alone ministry with the creation of the Ministry of Aviation in 2019.
The Tinubu Presidency had also created the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, which effectively took over the supervision of waterways and the Blue Economy from the Ministry of Transportation.
The Ministry of Transportation is now saddled with the land mode of transportation, namely the road and rail mode of transportation. The fifth mode of transportation, which is pipeline transportation had for a very long time been under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources.