Boosting the ‘Make in India’ initiative, Rifle Factory, Ishapore, has indigenously developed the country’s lightest revolver, ‘Nidar’ which weighs a mere 250 gm, half the weight of an earlier model ‘Nirbheek’, which was exclusively designed for women. Any citizen with a valid arms licence can buy the .22 calibre revolver, which is priced at less than one-third of the .32 calibre Nirbheek, which costs around Rs 1.22 lakh.
“The .22 calibre Nidar is the lightest revolver ever made in India, with the cheapest price tag of Rs 35,000. It is capable of firing eight rounds loaded in a revolving chamber, compared to Nirbheek, which has a six-round capacity,” said PK Aggarwal, officer-in-charge of Rifle Factory, Ishapore. “Unlike the expensive titanium alloy used in Nirbheek, for Nidar we developed a totally new alloy of aluminium which is called ‘DTD5124’. It is very light and has supreme metal strength,” he added.
The weapon, said the factory’s Public Relations Officer, SS Naskar, can be carried in a small purse, handbag or even trouser and jacket pockets. “Initially, we wanted Nidar to be exclusively dedicated for women, but due to strenuous resistance from arms dealers against the ‘women’s firearm’ tag which went with Nirbheek, we had to design the weapon for both men and women. Arms dealers claimed there were less takers for revolvers with a ‘women’s firearm’ tag,” he said. The revolver, said its makers, can fire with accuracy up to seven metres and has a barrel length of 40.3mm.
