Two of the 10 workshops appointed by the Land Transport Authority to carry out the retrofitting started work last Saturday, and a third is expected to begin today. The other workshops are still waiting for the new seats to arrive and will start work in coming weeks.

The Government announced in October that all small buses which ferry schoolchildren must have three-point seatbelts and front-facing seats by the end of 2011. Other small buses have until the end of 2013 to install seatbelts.

The ruling came after an intense public debate on the use of seatbelts in school buses, following the death of Russell Koh, eight, who was flung out of his school bus during an accident in April.

There are over 6,000 small buses in Singapore, of which 1,200 are used to transport schoolchildren. A small bus seats no more than 15 passengers.

The buses will be progressively fitted with seatbelts over the next few years.

Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.