British black cabs will be running on Pakistani roads by next month. The government has announced it will import three hundred of the traditional London taxis and set up a plant to build more of them. This report from Barbara Plett:

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In a trial run the government is allowing three hundred to be imported duty-free, but expecting success it has already announced a billion dollar deal to set up an assembly plant in Pakistan. That's expected to produce eighteen thousand of the taxis a year, half of them for export.

The state minister for investment told reporters the government aimed to provide safe and reliable taxi service. Newspapers though were more interested in what they suggested was the dodgy nature of the deal. They said it was apparently designed for a particular Pakistani company and bypassed rules for open bidding.

Barbara Plett, BBC

Listen to the words

to inaugurate
to begin, to introduce, often with a ceremony

terminal
station, usually at the end of a line

to hail
to stop and board a taxi

In a trial run
as an experiment

duty-free
without tax

to set up
to build, to establish

assembly plant
a factory where the cars will be put together

dodgy
cunning, tricky

bypassed
avoided, went round

open bidding
a situation where anybody can offer to do work

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