By Venkatachari Jagannathan

Chennai, May 30 (IANS): The Ordnance Clothing Factory (OCF) here is working towards reducing further the weight of bulletproof vests without compromising on the wearer's safety, said a senior official.

The OCF, Avadi here is part of the Troops Comforts Ltd.

"We have succeeded in reducing the weight of the bulletproof vests from 8.9 kg to 7.5 kg using different materials. We are working further to bring down the weight," V.Mathivannan, Officer on Temporary Charge at OCF told IANS.

The reduction of about 1.5 kg weight is itself a significant achievement and the vest is in sync with the standards prescribed.

According to Mathivannan, the vests can protect the wearer against bullets from different types of guns, including AK47.

The OCF has already supplied bulletproof vests to the Tamil Nadu Police.

The bulletproof jackets supplied to the Tamil Nadu Police have special features like high density water repellency, flame retardancy and protection from bullets fired from hand guns, pistols, AK-47 rifles and others.

With about 2,000 employees, the OCF also makes bomb disposal suit, bomb disposal blanket, bullet proof helmets and others like army uniform, clothing for extreme cold weather, clothing for Indian Air Force, parachute textiles and others.

Mathivannan said the organisation is participating in domestic and overseas tenders.

Last year the unit closed with a revenue of about Rs 225 crore and has an order book position of Rs 209 crore for the current fiscal.

According to Mathivannan, the OCF, Avadi is expecting further orders as it has participated in different tenders and the present order book position will keep the factory busy this fiscal.

Meanwhile Dr. G. Satheesh Reddy, Chairman, Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) at a recent conference here said the agency is working with academia to make the world's lightest bulletproof jackets.