Bangalore: American helicopter firm Bell Helicopters is in the race for the Indian Army's plan to buy 200 helicopters for deployment in the high altitude areas in the Himalayas, a top official of the company said today (Dec 1, 2004).

"We are in the race along with Eurocopter and Russia's MiL for the Army's tender," Bell Helicopters Asia Pacific vice president Max Wiley told reporters in Bangalore at the launch of Bell customer service facility at the Deccan Aviation hangar.

Wiley said the seven seater Bell 407 helicopter has been specified for the Army's tender and is expecting to sell at about $ 2 million a unit.

Bell, he said, was looking at delivering the 60 aircraft off-the-shelf and would transfer the technology to Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd to produce in India the remaining 140 helicopters under license agreement, besides making the global hub for production of this helicopter.

Wiley said the single-engine all weather helicopter was recently tested at an altitude of 25,000 feet and during the next stages cold high altitude tests and hot high altitude tests would be conducted by the Army before next summer.