New Journey

New Delhi, Jan. 6: Maruti Udyog Ltd, the country?s largest car maker, today rolled out Bharat Stage III variants of its popular models Zen, WagonR and Baleno. The new variants are Rs 10,000-15,000 costlier than the Bharat II version of these cars.

Bharat Stage III norms are more stringent than Bharat II as emission limits for hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides have been significantly brought down.

Maruti chief Jagdish Khattar today said the company and its vendors had to invest heavily in Bharat Stage III technology but kept mum on the quantum of funds pumped in.

The new emission norms come into effect from April in 11 cities. These include the national capital territory region, Calcutta, Chennai, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Kanpur, Pune, Agra and Surat.

The price of Baleno, which is the top-end car in the Maruti stable, has been increased by Rs 10,000, while WagonR and Zen will be costlier by Rs 15,000. Only yesterday, Maruti increased the prices of its existing Bharat II cars across all models, except for the entry-level Maruti 800.