Aerospatiale Matra India managing director Philip Advani told The Financial Express in an interview at the Paris Air Show that the current helicopter market outside of the defence forces in India was almost negligible and there was a huge potential waiting to be tapped. ``But it requires some hard work. First, the average Indian corporate leader still does not really understand what a helicopter can really do. How it can be a great utility and time and money saver, if used with efficiency. So, we have to really begin with the basics of creating an awareness among them about a helicopter,'' said Advani.

Advani said there were several mental blocks among the corporate leaders about the helicopters, the costs of using them and theopportunities to use them. And in an attempt to clear these blocks, Eurocopter will engage in a serious marketing-cum-awareness drive in India. For starters, Eurocopter is joining hands with the Confederation of Indian Industry and Pawan Hans, the country's largest helicopter fleet operator, to organise a `Helicopter Workshop' in New Delhi in August.

``With seminars and workshops like these, we hope to clear the minds of the corporate leaders and get them really interested in looking at helicopters as useful and advantageous mode of transport,'' Advani says. He predicts that the civilian Indian market, which is currently growing at the rate of 2-3 helicopters per year or less than one per cent, should be growing at 10-15 helicopters per year within the next few years. And to get the market growth rate five fold higher, Advani and his team are looking at the top 500 Indian corporates as potential users of helicopters.

And one of the ways to get the corporates to use the helicopters more often, Eurocopteris also trying to boost the concept of sharing the costs, through helicharters or through schemes where several companies together invest in one helicopter and then share the costs. Such schemes are already very popular in the west and Eurocopter will have to ensure their replication in India to see a higher growth.

Another way is to see the growth of private sector operators like Millionaire, a service offered by the Raymond's Ltd. ``If these companies can succeed, then of course, we can sell many more helicopters and one of the ways that we can help these companies gain more business is by generating awareness and interest in the domestic market about helicopters,'' Advani says.

Eurocopter has had a long association with India, both in the defence and the civilian sectors. Chetak and Cheetah, the two Indian helicopters that are used by both the defence and the civil aviation, are licenced products from the vast Eurocopter stable, being manufactured by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. Till lastmonth almost 590 of these had been delivered to Indian customers and Eurocopter is also examining the possibilities of introducing a more contemporary product in the Indian market through its association with HAL.

Eurocopter already has over 60 per cent of the Indian civil helicopter. However, Eurocopter has a clear edge over Bell, even for the future development of the market due to its partnership with HAL.