By LUCY OGALUE

The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, has directed the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to handover tickets and passengers’ identification to Secure ID, the company in charge of the E-Ticketing platform for Abuja-Kaduna rail service.

According to Amaechi, this will help in reducing incidents of crime and also curb security challenges on the route.

Amaechi said this when the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission(ICRC) visited and presented the Full Business Case Certificates (FBC) for the Lagos- Ibadan and Itakpe-Warri E-Ticketing service, to him in Abuja.

He said the introduction of the E-Ticketing platform for Abuja-Kaduna, blocked all revenue leakages and increased generated revenue on the route from about N100million to N400million monthly.

“The benefits of the E-Ticketing are that we rose from N100million to N400 million per month, which is an improvement.

“We have been able to do something that will eliminate leakages.

“The one I think I may disagree with the public, is the issue of ticket racketeering, I have spoken with the person in charge of Abuja-Kaduna e- ticket platform to take over the identification process from NRC.

“Because what the National Assembly told me is that NRC doesn’t cross check the identification of passengers on the tickets. They wanted to do it, but they have not gotten the approval from NRC.

“So, I have told NRC to allow them do it, so that we match faces with the names, it’s not all about crime alone but is also security, so we release it to those security outlets.

“Even though we cannot eliminate 100 percent crime and corruption, it will reduce the danger of having to run into security crises.

”So, that we know that what we are battling with is not crises in our terminals, but on the way and I believe that, that also will be sorted out as we go to cabinet for approval of the security gadgets, “Amaechi said.

While presenting the FBC, Mr Michael Ohiani, the Acting Director-General of the ICRC, he however said that the concession was for a period of ten years.

According to Ohiani, it will generate over N140billion for the country during the period and also help create over 3000 direct and indirect jobs for Nigerians.

“The concession is for 10 years. It is going to generate over N140billion to the Federal Government, most importantly, it will also create job opportunities for over 3000 direct and indirect jobs.

”The next phase is for the Hon. Minister to take it to the Federal Executive Council for approval and the Ministry of Justice will now clear it,” Ohiani said. (NAN)

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