White taxis allowed temporarily in Baku

The Azerbaijani Transport Ministry Starting removing from today traditional yellow taxis from the streets of Baku has announced plans on introduction of a monopoly on the type of taxis in the country’s capital.

Ministry’s spokesman Namig Hasanov has stated that white cars from the list approved by the Transport Ministry, which are permitted to be taxi since today, will be able to operate as taxis only temporarily.

"In the future only “London taxi cabs will be used in Baku after it becomes possible to meet all the taxi demand by taxi cabs TX4. At the same time a proposal is under consideration to use Russian model cars GAZ 3102 and GAZ 3105 in regions where taxi restrictions are not applied,” Hasanov said. The spokesman did not call terms of the "white taxi transition period".

From today, the Ministry is starting a campaign on removal substandard taxis from the streets of the city. This concerns not only Russian Lada, but also Renault and Tofas cars, bought once by the country from Turkey for use as taxis. Penalty for using unlicensed taxis is 100 manats and for breach of license conditions - 50 manats.

"In Europe there is a standard for the use of taxis, conforming to nine classifications, and we also intend to introduce this standard in Azerbaijan," Hasanov said.


/abc.az/