Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 4

The Government today issued a tender to procure 1.16 lakh bulletproof jackets for the Army.This comes after last month’s ‘emergency’ procurement contract worth Rs 140 crore for 50,000 such jackets. An Indian company has been selected and all jackets will be delivered by January next year.The move of buying 50,000 jackets and the tender for another 1.16 lakh jackets comes after a major tender to procure 1.86 lakh jackets was withdrawn in October last year. The tender – first issued in 2009 — had been withdrawn after the items fielded by the vendors failed the trials, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar told the Rajya Sabha in December last year.