Songkran revellers returning to Bangkok

BANGKOK, April 16 (TNA) - Buses of state-run Transport Company on Monday are on standby for services until early Tuesday morning, as hundreds of thousands revellers of the traditional Thai New Year or Songkran Festival are heading back here to start work. To ensure that transportation facilities are well prepared for the Songkran celebrants who are returning to the Thai capital to resume work on April 17, Transport Minister Charupong Ruangsuwan inspected the facilities at Bangkok’s Mo Chit bus terminal on Monday. Charupong told reporters that he expects more than 250,000 people from the upcountry are returning to Bangkok by buses operated by the Transport Company Limited on Monday, compared to 100,000 daily on average from last Saturday and Sunday. For the shortage of natural gas for vehicles (NGVs) in Thailand's northeastern Khon Kaen Province, causing a delay for passengers as buses of Transport Company Limited have had to wait for a long time at gas stations, Charupong revealed that he has asked the Energy Ministry and the PTT Public Company Limited (PTT) to supply more NGVs in the provinces in order to ease the problem. Meanwhile, Wuthichart Kalyanamitra, President of Transport Company Limited, projected that most people are returning to Bangkok on Monday, when private-run buses have also been requested to help provide the services to passengers in case they are stranded in the upcountry, and that buses should be packed from Monday until early tomorrow. Wuthichart said that about 100 NGV-powered buses operated by Transport Company Limited have been ordered to change their routes and to shorten travelling distance to no farther than 600 kilometres due to the NGV shortages in the upcountry. (TNA)