Shreyas Parikh, who heads Mumbai-based Parikh Armoring Company, is equally cautious. “I am very careful. In 1999, we started this whole process wherein a customer has to get a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the area authorities before we armour his car. This is absolutely necessary as the laws are silent on the issue of bullet-proof vehicles,” he says.

“Besides Mumbai, where the underworld threats keep people nervous about their safety, Gurgaon, Noida and border states also bring in demand,” adds Parikh. The firm counts celebrities, doctor and lawyers among its customers.

Noida-based Anjani Technoplast has a foolproof thumb rule — it does business only with the paramilitary and police forces. “Yes, there is a big demand from the private sector for bullet-proofing high-end cars, but as a rule we service only the government sector which is also witnessing a boom. Terrorism and Naxalite attacks have really pushed up the demand over the last three years. Security agencies in states like Orissa and Madhya Pradesh are also asking for armoured vehicles now. The demand has shot up with election season around the corner,” says Bhuwanish Kunwar, assistant general manager, Anjani Technoplast.

The armoring process itself is no mean task. It involves ripping up a vehicle, down to the undercarriage, and rebuilding it after armouring it with steel plates. Bullet-proofing a vehicle can take two-three months.

In Delhi, Rohtash Singh Yadav, who retired as assistant technical officer in the Cabinet Secretariat in 1995, now runs Secure Mobile, which supplies a whole gamut of bullet-proofed articles from vehicles to helmets, patkas and podiums. While the paramilitary and DRDO are among his prime customers, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Raymonds, Reliance Industries, Bristol Boats, Botswana Defence Group, Riyadh-based Al-Araba group and Nepal’s Royal Armed Police also share space on his long client list.

... contd.