Major avenues around the Grand Palace and Sanam Luang will be closed to vehicular traffic from Saturday to Monday with only
public transport allowed for mourners to pay obeisance to the Royal Urn of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
The public will be permitted to pay their respects before the Royal Urn starting Saturday.
PM’s Office Minister Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana, secretary of the government’s command centre set up for this activity, said yesterday that Rajdamnoen Road, the Lan Luang intersection and the Arun Amarin intersection on the Thon Buri side of Bangkok will be closed off from 7am on Saturday.
The road plan is aimed at facilitating the visit of thousands of mourners to the Grand Palace’s Dusit Maha Prasat Throne Hall, where the Royal Urn will rest.
The command centre also agreed to provide more facilities at the Grand Palace to accommodate at least 10,000 visitors daily who will be issued queue tickets to enter the Grand Palace.
More booths and resting spaces will be arranged for visitors inside the vast compound.
Authorities may also consider raising the limit on visitor entry depending on the situation.
Fifteen medical stations would be on hand to attend to any health needs.
In case of emergency, the Navy would cooperate to transport patients via waterways to nearby hospitals.

Donations welcome
Donations of food, beverages and other necessities are requested with ready-to-eat meals and dried foods preferred.
Those wishing to offer freshly cooked foods are welcome to set up mobile kitchens at appropriate places.
The Social Development and Human Security Ministry would provide 200 tents to shelter people at the Royal Turf Club in addition to the shelters at the Thai-Japan Bangkok Youth Centre and the National Stadium.
To help with the problem of missing children, it has prepared wristbands on which home addresses could be written so they would not get lost.
The Transportation Ministry plans to provide a 400-passenger ferry between Sathorn and Tha Chang piers starting tomorrow.
Temporary parking lots would remain open and public buses
from the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority would continue driving on special routes around the compounds.

‘Don’t rush on day one’
Maj-General Pongsawat Pannajit, deputy chief of the First Army Area, urged people intending to visit the Grand Palace during the period not to rush on the very first day to avoid congestion.
“I know that all Thais want to pay their last respects to the King, but there’s plenty of time, as the Royal Household Bureau is allowing people to enter the Throne Hall in the Grand Palace until the royal cremation, which is several months away,” he said.
On the plan to reserve a daily quota for people coming from the provinces, he said this was just the Interior Ministry’s idea and there were no details yet.
“We shouldn’t worry that people from the provinces will get any privilege, since everyone has to collect a queue card just like people in Bangkok.
“We will help them at Sanam Luang because they travel a long way to Bangkok and have less opportunity to express their condolences to the King,” he said.
Those going to the Grand Palace with a chronic illness should carry a card with information on their ailment so that in case of an emergency, medical personnel can know how to treat them properly.
Those travelling with children should attach a tag on their kids
with parents’ names and contact number in case they get separated, he added.
The Interior Ministry reported that 286,097 people from the provinces wrote messages of condolence to the late monarch on Tuesday, bringing the total messages from October 14 to 3,412,418.
Attendance for the prayers on Tuesday was 313,201, for the merit-making ceremony 52,753 and for other activities 14,815.
According to the Peace and Order Maintaining Command, the turnout at the royal funeral at Sanam Luang on Tuesday was 35,000, while 26,509 entered the Grand Palace to say farewell to the King.
From October 15 to Tuesday, 359,515 people have left condolence messages to the King at the Grand Palace.

MANY ELDERLY and disabled people are having to queue up for hours at the gates of the Grand Palace just so they can pay tribute to the late King.
Not only do they suffer from health issues, but they also have to deal with traffic challenges due to the lack of proper facilities.
“As my legs are in a bad condition and I cannot queue for a long time, I decided not to sign the condolence book in the Grand Palace. Instead, I decided to lie prostrate in front of the palace’s wall at night,” Sripan Hemwuttitanon, 85, said.
Sripan, who travelled alone from her hometown in Nonthaburi, said she did not want to use the wheelchair service provided by the authorities, as she did not want to bother anyone and could walk on her own.
“The wheelchairs should be provided for the disabled or people in need. I can walk, even if it is for short distances,” she said.
Over the last two weeks, hundreds of thousands of people have been gathering in front of the Grand Palace to pay their respects to His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who passed away on October 13 at the age of 89.
More than a 100 people, including the elderly and disabled, use the wheelchair service, a source from the newly set-up safety command centre said. The centre has been created to oversee the management of the mass gathering at Sanam Luang – an open field adjacent to the Grand Palace.
The 250 wheelchairs are enough to service the people in need who come to Sanam Luang and, so far, there has been no need to beef up the facilities for the elderly and the disabled, the source said.
“The number of people needing a wheelchair is not that much. We can manage it for now. If the issue swells, we will come up with a solution,” the source added.
“I have chosen not to queue up to enter the Grand Palace. With my crippled legs, it will be inconvenient for me and my sister to wait in such a long queue,” Narong Chantrakul, 34, said. He is in a wheelchair and was escorted to Sanam Luang by his sister.
Many of the elderly and disabled people from upcountry, including Narong, have decided to head for home despite not getting the chance the bid their final farewell to the revered monarch.
Narong suggested that a special lane be set up for the disabled, adding that the long queues are also demotivating for the aged and the paralysed.
Yesterday, Narong decided to give up after believing that he had to get a queue card and wait in the kilometre-long line to sign the condolence books.
However, like other weekdays, Sanam Luang was quite empty yesterday and officials allowed the public to go through to the Grand Palace without the need for a queue card.
“People can go inside without getting a queue card today [yesterday]. We will distribute queue cards on crowded days such as the weekends and some specific days,” a source at the joint centre explained.
According to the source, the elderly and the disabled do not need to get queue cards, and that visitors will be screened by the authorities to see if they need a wheelchair or special care. These people will be escorted to the front of the queue right away and will not have to wait too long.
Instead of having to spend hours in the scorching sun, it takes the wheelchair-bound just 30 minutes to enter and sign the condolence book inside the Grand Palace’s Sala Sahathai Samakhom Pavilion.
“It is good that they have provided a wheelchair and have helped me pay respects to the King inside. I am happy and feel blessed to be given this chance,” said Opas Thomboon, 44.
Opas, who travelled alone from Surin and arrived in Sanam Luang at 4am yesterday, said he and many other disabled people had made a difficult journey to pay respects to the late King.
He also said that the authorities should take the mobility of the disabled and the elderly into consideration and ensure that everybody has an equal chance to pay their respects to the late King, especially since he is considered a father to millions.

Kraisorn Kongchalard wrote on Facebook on Sunday that he was contacted by a giant company, which wanted to sign up farmers to grow potatoes on the mountain.
Kraisorn, the deputy governor, strongly criticised the proposal, saying it would harm the environment as growing potatoes needed extensive use of chemicals and fertilisers. Doing that would contaminate the soil, air and the water there, he said.
The provincial official also felt that contract farming never gave fair treatment to farmers.
He urged the public to help consider the issue, and take social sanctions against the proposal, including a ban on consumption of potatoes from any such moves.
The deputy governor’s post drew heavy support on social media yesterday, including from the chair of Phetchabun’s cultural council, who backed him, saying he was such a courageous man with a brave and beautiful heart.
His post was shared extensively among organic farmers.
Kraisorn said yesterday he had learned a painful lesson about excessive use of chemicals and fertiliser in Tak province, where the same giant company reportedly hired farmers to grow potatoes; the potatoes were of poor quality and that left the farmers in trouble, he said.
Phu Thap Boek had also suffered chemical contamination from farmers growing cabbage. Provincial officials had tried to convince farmers to swap to organic farming, which is seen as much more environmentally friendly.
The effort appears to have been hampered by the new proposal, the deputy governor added.
“It’s hard to prevent farmers from engaging in this kind of proposal. So I just wanted to raise public awareness among consumers to keep up with these kind of companies and their action far away [from the capital], and help put pressure on them so that they become more socially responsible,” Kraisorn said.

FOLLOWING Monday’s bomb attack on a noodle shop near a night market in Pattani’s Muang district, which led to one death and 18 injuries, messages of encouragement have been posted on social media supporting Mathayom 6 student Narisara Makchuchit, whose leg was amputated due to her injuries.
The student from Demonstration School of Prince of Songkla University’s Pattani campus was transferred from Pattani Hospital to the better-equipped Songkhlanagarind Hospital in Songkhla’s Hat Yai district where she underwent the operation. She was reported yesterday to be in stable condition.
Friends and family reported the girl – described as a studious and well-mannered schoolgirl who dreamed of pursuing a higher-education degree – was supposed to take a university entrance exam in the next few days, Isra News Agency reported yesterday.
Other wounded people were in critical condition yesterday, including noodle shop employee Manocha Pongsao, who also had her leg amputated and an eye injured by shrapnel removed, and a seven-year-old boy, Phrompiriya Phrmnukul, who remained in intensive care following surgery. The boy’s parents and a sibling were also injured in the blast.
The explosion at 7pm on Monday led to the death of one woman identified as Somporn Khunthakaphan, who succumbed to her injuries in hospital.
Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) Region 4’s Front Command spokesman Colonel Pramote Prom-in said authorities suspected the bomb attack was launched by assailants linked to previous incidents, particularly the July 3 blast in front of Pattani Central Mosque, which resulted in the death of one police officer and three injuries, according to Isra News Agency.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said the Pattani bombing was the insurgents’ attempt to demonstrate their capability to carry out attacks after the government resumed the peace dialogue.
“As long as some people are still eyeing launching attacks, there is bound to be violence taking place while we try the best we can. These people don’t clearly show themselves but are among the public,” he said, urging the media not to play up reports about insurgents, which would heighten fears, but merely report facts.
He added that the government would implement measures to solve the southern unrest and officers would try to prevent attacks with an emphasis on intelligence gathering.
Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan yesterday said a small explosive housed in a can was used in the recent Pattani attack.
Meanwhile, Deputy Defence Minister General Udomdech Sitabutr, who leads the newly-established 13-member “front command Cabinet” tasked with tackling issues related to the southern unrest, said yesterday he was concerned about the bombing, adding that he would order officers to improve security measures so development projects could continue.
“Misguided” people were launching attacks, Udomdech said, adding that Isoc Region 4 would handle security details.
When asked if the recent attack was linked to the October 25 anniversary of the 2004 Tak Bai incident, when more than 80 people were killed by authorities after protests in Narathiwat province’s Tak Bai district, Udomdech said authorities had been on guard for a possible attack coinciding with the date.
He also said his team would coordinate with related working groups from tomorrow until Monday to advance seven working plans related to the South, including security and peace-promotion plans.

Pol Maj General Jirapat Phumjit, acting deputy city police chief, said the planning meeting yesterday heard that the traffic volume caused by parents dropping off and picking up their children at schools would add to the already high volume on roads caused by royal events and infrastructure projects.
Jirapat instructed traffic police to liaison with schools in their precincts while watching for any traffic issues or accidents so that they can be dealt with quickly.
Traffic police must be at their stations at 5am and 3pm for the morning and evening rush hours, with city officials and volunteers backing them up on secondary roads.
Traffic law offenders would be arrested and their cars towed away, he warned.