The Throne Hall inside the Grand Palace opened for mourners to pay their respects before the Royal Urn of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej during the weekend and the government has increased the number of people allowed inside each day to 30,000.
Original plans by the government called for a daily quota of 10,000 queue tickets to be issued, however, large crowds caused that plan to be scrapped, local media reported. Currently, groups of at least 70 at a time have been allowed to enter the throne hall. The Royal Household Bureau told media outlets that estimated turnout for Saturday was 29,480 and even more on Sunday.
The Joint Peace and Order Centre decided to limit the number of mourners to 30,000 a day based on those numbers, Maj Gen Kritdanai Itthimonthon, chief of staff at the First Army, told local newspapers. A large number of mourners continue to visit Sanam Luang, queuing to get inside the Grand Palace. In order to help ease the backlog of visitors, the first group of mourners were allowed to enter the throne hall at 5:15am instead of 8am as originally planned. Hours of access were also extended to 9pm daily.
Maj Gen Thammanoon Withi, the 1st Army deputy commander, explained that the peace and order center will meet to consider ways to ensure the public is able to visit the Grand Palace including an Internet reservation scheme, but no timetable was given as to when this would be implemented if approved.
It was also noted that Sanam Luang is off-limits to everyone except government workers keeping the area clean and free from vagrants from 9pm and 4am each day. Those travelling from outside of Bangkok are advised to stay at shelters provided by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. No persons will be allowed to stay at Sanam Luang during those hours.
