With huge requirement, the helicopter market in India will be worth about 4 billion U.S. dollars over the next few years, a report of Indo-Asian News Service said Sunday.

The report said that all the helicopters with the Indian armed forces are more than 20 years old and need to be replaced.

The report quoted a strategic magazine as saying that the Indian Army would sign a contract with Eurocopter for 197 modern light helicopters, totaling 550 million dollars.

The Indian Army has chosen Eurocopter's AS 550 C3 Fennec over the Bell Helicopter's Bell 407 after trials in different regions. The new machines will replace the old Chetak and Cheetah helicopters of the Indian Army.