Measures to ease anticipated traffic jams during airport move

The Transport Ministry is preparing a series of measures to ease anticipated traffic jams on the roads leading to the new Suvarnabhumi airport in the run-up to its commercial opening on Sept 28. Deputy Transport Minister Chainant Charoensiri said the toll on the Eastern Outer Ring Road from Tap Chang tollgate to the airport would be waived from Sept 25 to April 25.

The ministry also asked the Highway Department to temporarily halt all construction work on the ring road from Sept 25-30. The construction is to expand the four-lane ring road to eight lanes.

In addition, the ministry was seeking cooperation from Bangkok Expressway (BECL) to lower the toll on its expressway from Srinakarin tollgate to the new airport from 25 baht to 20 baht. The ministry expected BECL to respond to its request before the airport's opening .

Gen Chainant said traffic was expected to be extremely heavy on Sept 27 and 28 when airline and airport workers are due to move their operation bases from Don Muang airport to Suvarnabhumi.

If necessary, he said, some stretches of the outer ring road would be closed at certain times on those two days to facilitate the relocation to the new airport.

To accommodate passengers going to the new airport by taxi, 12 taxi centre operators have agreed to mobilise up to 10,000 taxis to serve them on a daily basis, Gen Chainant said.

But the taxi drivers must undergo training and register with the airport first or they will not be allowed to pick up passengers at the airport.

The Land Transport Department will open at least 10 new routes for minibuses to take passengers from around Bangkok to Suvarnabhumi. At present, more than 500 minibus drivers are ready to serve the new routes, said Chairat Sanguansue, the department's deputy chief.

Caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday spoke enthusiastically about Suvarnabhumi airport in a pre-recorded television interview aired yesterday. He said, among other things, that the airport would become the world's largest when it is fully operational.