The army has finally agreed on a contract for “emergency” procurement of 50,000 bulletproof jackets with Tata Advanced Materials Limited (a subsidiary of the Tata Group) for Rs 140 crores.
“The jackets will be delivered from August onwards. All the jackets are to be delivered by January 2017,” a defence ministry source told the Times of India (TOI).
The army needs approximately 3,53,765 new jackets. The huge shortage of bulletproof jackets may be blamed upon the convoluted procurement procedures. Several parliamentary committees over the years have ignored the need.
According to TOI, Manohar Parrikar had approved this “interim emergency acquisition” through the “revenue route” soon after he became the defence minister in November, 2014.
In October, 2015, the tender for 1.86 lakh modular jackets was scrapped because the samples offered by six vendors failed to clear field trials.
The army vice-chief’s existing financial powers were relaxed as a one-time exception to make way for the emergency purchase of 50,000 jackets.
“The minister and Army vice-chief Lt-General M M S Rai pushed to expedite the entire process,” said a source to TOI.
Originally, 1.86 lakh jackets were to be inducted by 2012 and the remaining 1.67 lakh by 2017, but till date no new jackets have been acquired. The existing bulky jackets are at the end of their operational life.
