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THE company which will be supplying Bahrain's new super taxis has been forced to recall all the models it produced in the second half of 2006 after fires broke out under the bonnets of several vehicles.
The move came shortly after it was announced that the newly-formed Arabian Taxi Company (ATC) will be operating the very distinctive 'London cabs' in Bahrain by the end of the year.
The Economic Development Board, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice and Islamic Affairs and Bahrain Development Bank spearheaded a project to regulate and develop the taxi industry in the kingdom.
The result was the formation of the Arabian Taxi Company which will operate to strict metering regulations and has shareholders who are mostly taxi drivers' orphans and widows and elderly drivers,.
The company has ordered 200 of the distinctive TX4 London cabs from LTI, of Coventry, England, which has been producing the iconic vehicles for 80 years.
More than a dozen of the TX4 models, the same type as will be coming to Bahrain, have burst into flames while in use.
The company initially advised drivers to get their vehicles checked but on September 19 the Public Carriage Office, the government department which regulates taxis in the UK, announced that it was recalling all TX4s registered in the second half of 2006.
LTI is now working to implement solutions on all the vehicles. A Euro Motors spokesman said: "We are aware of this problem but the cars coming to Bahrain will be all new vehicles so it is not something we should have to worry about."
And a spokesman for LTI added: "The taxis which had the problem were part of the very first batch we built. We are working on them to make modifications and those modifications will be included in the vehicles we will be producing for Bahrain this month."
