BANGKOK, April 10 (TNA) – Traffic is escalating on
highways and railways leading to regions in Thailand as people are traveling
back to their homes to celebrate the Songkran festival.
In Chai Nat province, more vehicles were running on Highway
32, aka Asian Highway, towards the North. Many vehicles were trucks because the
Land Transport Department would temporarily ban them on highways on April 11-17
to reduce risks of traffic accidents during the Songkran holiday.
For Highway 2 or Mitraparp Highway in Nakhon Ratchasima
province which is the gateway to the Northeast, provincial police chief Pol Maj
Gen Wacharin Boonkong suggested motorists avoid the highway’s bottleneck
section near the Lam Takhong dam in Si Khiu district or they would waste 5-7
hours in traffic jams there. He recommended a faster detour through Saraburi
province and Thep Sathit district of Chaiyaphum province.
In the southern province of Songkhla, first-class train
tickets were fully booked until April 20 at the Hat Yai junction station.
Meanwhile, huge crowds of Cambodian workers were crossing
the border through Thep Nimit sub-district of Pong Namron district in
Chanthaburi province to go back to their homeland. Officials expected at least
140,000 Cambodian workers would return home through the checkpoint in this
Songkran festival.
At the border checkpoint of Mae Sot district in Tak
province, Myanmar workers were overpowering immigration officers to undergo
procedures to return to their soil. Local officials believed at least 100,000
Myanmar workers would leave Thailand through the passage in this Songkran
festival.(TNA)
