India, July 30 -- With over 100,000 small vans transporting school students in Maharashtra being 'unauthorised', the state government has proposed to tweak its own motor vehicle rules by recognising smaller vehicles with a capacity of up to 12 passengers as 'school vans'. The transport department last week issued a notification defining school buses and school vans in accordance with the Maharashtra Motor Vehicles (Regulations for School Buses) Rules 2011.

According to the draft, buses are vehicles that ferry more than 13 passengers while vans carry less than 12. Earlier, the seating capacity ascertained by the government were 6 students. "With this rule-tweaking, we want to strictly regulate vans ferrying school students," said an offic...