Sources said the laboratory has completed the testing procedure for the life saving armour and expected to submit its report by the end of this month.
Para-military force personnel may soon don light bullet-proof jackets with the government considering to procure nearly 60,000 of this latest protective gear by June.
Earlier, the government had scrapped the trial process following controversy over alleged approval for faulty bullet-proof jackets on the basis of test report by the Terminal Ballistic Research Laboratory (TBRL), Chandigarh.
Sources in the home ministry said the laboratory has completed the testing procedure for the life saving armour and expected to submit its report by the end of this month.
A senior official, supervising the procedure, confirmed the completion of trials and said "we are awaiting the laboratory report which is expected before March 31. In all probability, bullet-proof jackets would be procured by June."
They said the trials, which were closely monitored by the ministry official, were carried out on fresh samples called from the suppliers.
The government had on January 11 scrapped the technical evaluation report of bullet-proof jackets done under a tender floated on July 3 last year for procuring vests and has recommended action against a DRDO official who was part of the evaluation panel.
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has been designated as the nodal force to procure the vests for six Central Para-Military Forces (CPMF). The other five forces include NSG, CISF, ITBP, Assam Rifles and SSB.
According to another official, after floating the new tender, two committees - Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) under the chairmanship of Director General of Bureau of Police Research and Development and a Tender Advisory Committee (TAC) under the chairmanship of DG CRPF - were constituted.
The TEC included Joint Director RK Verma of TBRL, a laboratory under Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) and the samples submitted by the qualified bidders were tested in the TBRL. The TEC submitted its report on the tests to the TAC.
When the matter was under consideration of the TAC, the ministry received several complaints from different quarters including a CD purportedly containing conversations between Verma and one of the bidders.
This prompted home minister P Chidambaram to order a stay on further proceedings in tender for the bullet-proof jackets.
After a preliminary consideration of the complaints and the CD, the home minister had on December 23, 2009 stayed the tender process and directed that the bids shall not be opened until further orders, the official said.
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