"Songkran holidays"

The Bank of Thailand today (March 18) announced cancellation of the annual Songkran holidays, scheduled April 13-15, for financial institutions .

AIRPORTS, ROADS and border checkpoints were clogged yesterday as hundreds of thousands of people began leaving Bangkok for Songkran holidays, thinking in vain that they would be avoiding heavy traffic.

Metropolitan Police Bureau chief Pol Lt-General Sutthipong Wongpin has instructed police officers not to take days off during the Songkran holidays, so as to provide beefed-up public security.

The state-run Transport Company will increase its bus and passenger-van services by 3,000 to a total of some 9,000 trips per day from April 10-13, in order to accommodate a sharp rise in the number of passengers expected to travel out of Bangkok ahead of the long Songkran holidays period.

A pickup truck hired to transport six Lao migrants back home for the Songkran holidays overturned in Loei’s Mueang district on Monday morning, killing one of them and injuring the other five.

STRICTER MEASURES will be enforced to boost road safety during the coming Songkran holidays, including a requirement for an alcohol test after every road accident that causes serious injury and death.

Starting from Sunday night, the Interior Ministry’s complaint-receiving centres will provide one-stop services around the clock during the Songkran holidays until April 17.