India’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) is not planning to modify the engine of its oldest model – the Maruti 800 -- to meet Bharat Stage IV emission norms that would be applicable in the country from April next year.

A top Maruti official said that the car would be phased out from 11 metro cities, while continuing to be available for sale in rest of the cities.

“We are not thinking of modifying the engine of the 800 (Maruti) to satisfy new emission norms. It will be phased out from 11 cities where the norms are applicable post-April 2010,” said Shinzo Nakinishi, managing director and & CEO, MSIL.

The company’s new KB series engine satisfies the new emission norms applicable to cars running on the country’s roads from April 1 next year, Nakinishi added.

Maruti’s new KB series engine comes in cars like the A-star, Ritz and new Estilo.

Nakanishi also ruled out the launch of Suzuki Motor’s luxury sedan Kizashi in India, at least for the next two years. “Kizashi’s launch in India would depend on the market situation, a decision on which would be taken in the next two years,” he added.

The car is powered by a 2.4 litre engine developed by Suzuki, and would probably be priced around Rs 12-15 lakh once if comes here.

Maruti on Friday also took possession of the 700-acre land in Rohtak provided by the Haryana government for setting up the carmaker’s biggest research and development hub outside Japan – which, once operational, would become its parent company Suzuki Motor’s global R&D hub for small cars.

The carmaker has earmarked an investment of Rs 1,000 crore for the project – which would be completed in two phases - by 2012 and by 2015.

It plans to design and develop a ‘Made in India’ car by 2012.