The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) on Thursday began the processing of Expression of Interest (EOI) of 1,100 bidders for 2021 capital projects.
Opening the bidding, the Managing Director, Mr Fidet Okhiria, said the process was conducted publicly for transparency in line with the Public Procurement Act.
Okhiria who was represented by the Director of Operations of NRC, Mr Niyi Alli, disclosed this during the exercise at the Railway Headquarters in Lagos on Thursday.
He said qualified bidders would be selected for specific projects after the technical evaluation of the proposals.
According to him, the NRC adhered to COVID-19 protocols by allowing only 150 bidders at a time during the processing of their documents.
Okhiria said the corporation would move to the next stage of the project in two weeks time, after processing all the expression of interest documents.
The Director of Procurement of NRC, Mr Benjamin Iloanusi, said the corporation advertised the available projects in daily newspapers, Federal Tenders journals and on its website.
Iloanusi said over 1,100 documents were received, and that due to the Convid-19 pandemic, the NRC decided to restrict the processing of the bidders to 150 per session.
“At the close of the seven weeks advert notice, we now opened their documents in the public and in the presence of some Non Governmental Organisation (NGOs) and the bidders.
“We are checking the eligibility of presented documents such as Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Industrial Training Fund Certificate (ITF) among others,” Oloanusi said.
Some of the bidders expressed satisfaction with the open bidding.
One of the bidders, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), High Destiny Security Ltd., Mr Daniel Tishene, said the opening of the project tender was transparent.
Tishene said he was able to use the processing to submit additional documents such as medical retainer, professional indemnity, insurance policy and other required documents by the NRC.
The Managing Director, RightWay Insurance Nigeria Ltd., Miss Williams Damilola, also said the processes was transparent.