Defence minister Rajnath Singh to hand over Nagpur-made grenades to Army

NAGPUR: Defence minister Rajnath Singh will be on a visit to the city on Tuesday. He would pay a visit to key defence establishments like the Headquarters Maintenance Command of the Indian Air Force (IAF), and Brahmos Aerospace unit in Butibori.
Singh is also expected to visit the RSS headquarters, said sources.
The minister is also scheduled to hand over the first batch of multimodal hand grenades made by Economic Explosives Limited (EEL), headed by city businessman Satyanarayan Nuwal, to the Army.
These are the first ever hand grenades made by a private company in the country. The multimodal grenades are set to replace the World War-II-make M36 grenades used by the Army at present. The M36 were made by ordnance factories, which are also working on a new grenade.
The latest grenades have both defensive and offensive use for soldiers. EEL has made the weapon based on the design by Terminal Ballistics Laboratory Limited (TBRL), a part of the Defence Research and Development Organisation.
EEL, which is part of Solar Industries Limited, was the first to bag the order for making these grenades for the Army. The order worth Rs409 crore involves making 10 lakh grenades over a period of time.
The development assumes importance in the light of government’s decision to corporatize Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), throwing it open to competition with private sector.