"The jackets will allow better mobility to the troops. These have been kept light weight and are better resistant to humidity as the paramilitary personnel undertake both static and patrolling duties," a top officer in the Bureau of Police Research and Development - an organisation entrusted with the task of modernisation of police forces - said. The extreme weather conditions in the country have been kept in mind while procuring the new jackets, which will be light in weight and provide better fitting to a 6 ft tall jawan, Anurag Tripathi, spokesperson for the Kanpur-based
The jackets conform to a set of international guidelines for such vests, he said, adding the material used has better resistance to water and moisture thereby making it last longer. These jackets have been tested as per the most stringent norms of the National Institute of Justice and have passed all the tests, Tripathi said. The company will supply the jackets in eight months, he added. The Home Ministry had informed the Lok Sabha last month that there was a shortage of 8,71,21 bulletproof jackets in the central paramilitary forces. The new orders were placed on April 27 by the home ministry. The government had earlier cancelled the initial test results in November last year after the "integrity of the testing process had been vitiated by the activities of the chief scientist of the Terminal Ballistic Research Laboratory in Chandigarh. A re-trial of the life saving jackets was then ordered under the instructions of Home Minister P Chidambaram.
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