Army obtains hand grenades from private firm

The Indian Army on Tuesday accepted the delivery of the first batch of multi-mode hand grenades, manufactured by a private sector firm, at a ceremony in Nagpur, with the move expected to provide thrust to the goal of Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India), the defence ministry said in a statement.

The defence ministry had signed a contract with Nagpurbased private firm Economic Explosives Ltd (EEL) last October for supplying 1 million multimode hand grenades to the army. These will replace a World WAR-II vintage hand grenade design being used by the army. EEL is expected to execute the order by October 2022.

The multi-mode hand grenade has been designed by Chandigarh-based Terminal Ballistic Research Laboratories (TBRL) — a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) laboratory — and produced by EEL.

The ceremony at Nagpur was attended by defence minister Rajnath Singh, army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane and DRDO chief G Satheesh Reddy.

EEL chairman SN Nuwal handed over a scale replica of the grenade to the minister to mark the first delivery of ammunition from the private sector. Singh said the grenades were “a shining example” of public-private partnership to achieve selfreliance in defence manufacturing. “Today is a memorable day in the history of the Indian defence sector. Our private industry is coming of age when it comes to defence production. It is an important milestone not only in the field of defence manufacturing, but also in achieving ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’,” Singh said.

Multi-purpose grenades figured on the first list of 101 types of weapons and ammunition whose import India will ban progressively over the next five years. In May, the government notified a list of another 108 defence items that cannot be imported by the armed forces.

THE NAGPURBASED FIRM HAS TO SUPPLY 1 MN MULTI-MODE HAND GRENADES TO THE ARMY BY 2022