At the Ordnance Clothing Factory at Avadi, the oldest military uniform manufacturing unit, over 1,300 (mostly women) tailors toil hard every day on the tailoring machines as these hands stitch lakhs of uniforms and thousands of lifesaving pieces of clothing, including bulletproof jackets, for the Armed Forces.

“Most of the tailors have been with OFC for many years,” BS Reddy, General Manager, OCF, told businessline. Over the years, they have been stitching uniforms of different types, including jackets, trouser combat disruptive and the latest advanced digital combat uniform of the Indian Army. This features a pixelated design and a new camouflage pattern designed for Indian terrains, including jungle, desert, marine, and multi-terrain environments. They also stitch bullet-resistant jackets. This is printed with a black/jungle camouflage pattern to match the combat uniform.

This fiscal, the factory has been given a mandate to stitch 4.81 lakh uniforms, Reddy added.

However, in the last few years, automation has come in, and the number of employees has reduced by half. There is computerised, automated market preparation and precise cutting specifications. There has been integration of advanced technologies and digital tools to enhance quality, he said.

OCF has supplied bullet-resistant jackets to Defence PSUs, as well as to police departments in Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, and Kerala, the Odisha Forest Department and the Sardar Vallabhai Patel National Police Academy. In addition to uniforms, the factory also manufactures bullet-resistant jackets, bullet-resistant helmets, ballistic briefcases (used by VIP escorts), bullet-resistant jackets for canines, bullet-resistant vests (male and female), bomb suppression blankets and life jackets. “We have supplied ballistic helmet IIIA to the Uttarakhand police, DPSUs, Sardar Vallabhai Patel National Police Academy, Kerala Police and DRDO,” he said.

In the last four years, the OCF Avadi, a premier production unit under Troop Comforts Limited, a Defence Public Sector Undertaking, has become a Centre of Excellence for ballistic protection gear and the first organisation in India to successfully develop and prove a bullet-resistant jacket, he said.

“We also produced vehicle armouring for the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry police. The Armoured Toyota Fortuner offers 360 degree protection from rifle threats and explosives from mines. The vehicle’s body, doors and wind shields offer the same level of protection,” he said. “We utilised the bullet proofing technical knowhow in to product diversification and ventured in to vehicle armouring,” he said. Reddy said OCF executed export orders of defence uniforms to Suriname. It also ventured into civil trade and executed orders worth ₹1.12 crore to Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd.

Published on June 30, 2025