Nagpur: Economic Explosives Limited (EEL), a company under city’s Solar Group, a major producer of commercial and defence explosives, expects to put up its latest electronic multimodal hand grenade for trials soon. This is one step ahead of the latest grenade being acquired by the Army.

The technology for making the grenade has been shared with the company by Chandigarh-based Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory (TBRL), a unit under DRDO, a senior official of EEL told TOI.

Based on it, EEL has come up with initial units of the grenade, that were also put up on display at Axis-2020 exhibition under way at VNIT.

TBRL has also shared the technology of the non-electronic multimodal grenades with EEL, making it the sole private player to take part in the process for supplying the weapon to the army.

EEL has already taken part in a request for proposal (RFP) by the Army to make multimodal grenades without using the electronic mechanism. The weapon will also be made by the Ordnance Factory, Khamaria in Madhya Pradesh. Both the entities await the bulk production order from the Army.

In the meantime, EEL said it has also developed electronic grenade — mechatronic — which also has a multimodal function. The mechatronic was on display at Axis 2020.

A senior official from the company told TOI that the company has finished internal trials of the electronic grenades and soon user trials, which is an evaluation by the Army, will take place. The electronic device will ensure the perfect timing for explosion in the grenade.

Maintaining the timing for explosion, once the pin is removed, is a crucial requirement for a grenade’s functioning. As per the Army’s requirements, it has to be not before 3.5 seconds and not later than 4.5 seconds.

In the grenades made so far, the process is chemically controlled. “With the electronic chip fitted, precise timing can be maintained,” said the company’s official.