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Three Pakistani cities will from next year have 'Black Cab' taxis like the ones plying on the streets of London. Three-hundred "purpose-built Black Cabs" will be running on the roads of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad within the first quarter next year, Dawn newspaper quoted a sponsor of the company that plans to introduce the taxis as saying. The taxis, each costing Rs six million, would charge passengers Rs 11.40 per kilometre. Karachi-based Prime Transport Limited (PTL) says it will introduce about 7,000 vehicles in the country in two years and then manufacture at least 6,000 cabs. Half of the self-manufactured taxis will then be exported to the Middle East, Africa and Asia, excluding China and Central Asian states, Dawood Khan, the chief executive officer of the PTL said. The project had became controversial early this year when the government announced it will allow duty- and tax-free import of 300 purpose-built cabs under straight-jacket specifications and provided about 15 days for bids. Nobody had responded, not even the PTL that had originally conceived the project and had signed a memorandum of understanding with the London Transport International (LTI) to import and then manufacture Black Cabs in Pakistan. As a result, Industries and Production Minister Jehangir Khan Tarin announced on June 22 that the facility of duty- and tax-free import would no more be applicable. Dawood said his company had not submitted the bid in protest against the government's decision to seek bids for import of 300 cabs because his company already had licence from the LTI and had been discussing it with the government since 2001
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