The Transport Co expects to see a 30% rise in the number of passengers using its inter-provincial bus and van services over the New Year holiday. The average daily number is projected to be about 60,000 from Tuesday until next Thursday.
The state-run company and its partners will prepare buses and vans for 4,700 trips a day for passengers who want to travel or return home up-country during the festive period, said Sanyalux Panwattanalikit, the company's president.
From Jan 2-3, it will arrange buses and vans making 4,500 trips as it expects to serve about 50,000 passengers returning to Bangkok each day.
To ensure passengers’ safety amid the threat of Covid-19, the company will prepare mobile screening units at Mo Chit Bus Terminal to offer them free Covid-19 tests, Mr Sanyalux said.
Passengers are required to strictly follow the Public Health Ministry’s Covid-19 prevention measures, including wearing a face mask on their trip, he added.
People began leaving the capital en masse on Tuesday. Traffic on Mitraphap Road in Nakhon Ratchasima, a gateway to the Northeast, has grown heavier, with a more than 4-kilometre-long section clogged by cars at certain intervals, according to highway police.
The police have closed all 12 u-turns on the road to curb accidents.