Patna, June 24: Bihar police personnel would soon be equipped with sophisticated arms. The state police headquarters has placed the order for the supply of firearms and ammunition in large quantity from different state-run ordinance factories.

The list of the arms required for the state policemen includes mortars, grenade fire rifles, light motor guns, carbines, AK-47 assault rifles and hand grenades. For the first time, the order of the supply of light motor guns, grenade fire rifles and improved quality of mortars has been placed as the state police personnel are still deprived of these weapons.

Additional director-general (headquarters) Rajvardhan Sharma said the police headquarters has sanctioned Rs 5.56 crore for the purchase of weapons required for the policemen.

“Cheques have already been submitted to the ordinance factories. We hope to receive the consignment very soon,” he said.

Sharma said once the consignment was delivered to the state police, the arms would be provided to different units of the police force.

“Some of the arms are being purchased for the first time,” he told The Telegraph.

Earlier, the police headquarters had submitted a proposal of Rs 125 crore to the state government under the modernisation plan of the state police. The proposal was sent soon after the chief minister had convened a high-level meeting to review the law and order situation in November 2010.

According to the proposal, the state police required about 60-70 anti-landmine vehicles and 10,000 more bulletproof jackets. At present, the state has only 55-60 anti-landmine vehicles, which had been deployed in 33 Naxalite-affected districts.

The police headquarters has proposed purchasing 100 mortars of 81mm and 200 mortars of 51mm.

For the first time, the headquarters has felt the need of buying about 2,000 deep search metal detectors (DSMD) and 100 thermal imagers (TI).

Thermal powers imagers would be provided to the police stations in the Naxalite-hit districts to keep a close watch on the movement of the Maoists at night.

“With the help of the thermal power imagers, the security men can trace the movement of the Naxalites in a radius of 1.5km. The state police are deprived of such a device,” director-general of police Neel Mani said.

The headquarters has also proposed to purchase about 200-300 other night vision devices. To improve the existing communication system, the headquarters has stressed the need of about 2,500 sets of Global Positing System (GPS).

The police required 90 more bullet protected gypsies for better policing in the Naxalite-affected areas. The state has at present 60 bullet-protected vehicles. Besides, there is a proposal to purchase 150 bullet-protected troupe carriers. The strengthening of the bomb disposal squads is also on the cards.

The DGP said two more bomb disposal squads would be stationed in districts. While one of them is proposed to be set up at Barauni (Beguserai), the location of another unit is yet to be finalised.

At present, two bomb disposal squads are stationed in Patna. Two squads each are in Gaya, Dehri (Rohtas), Muzaffarpur and Jamalpur (Munger).

It has also proposed to seek the assistance of explosive experts of the National Security Guards and the Indian Army to sensitise the dog squads.

“There is a need to strengthen the state forensic science laboratory and finger prints for scientific investigation of the criminal cases,” he added.