Plans being made to mark key days after King’s passing

The much-revered monarch passed away peacefully at the age of 89 on October 13.
Huge crowds of mourners have surrounded the Grand Palace since then, where his body is resting, to show their undying love and respect for him.
“Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha has instructed the joint safety operation centre to prepare pro-active plans to facilitate everything related to the major merit-making ceremonies on the 50th day and 100th day since His Majesty’s passing,” First Army Area deputy commander and the centre’s deputy chief Maj-General Pongsawat Pannajit said yesterday.
“We also have to plan for the construction of the royal crematorium.”
Prayut inspected the operations of the centre around the Grand Palace and Sanam Luang, the adjacent field, yesterday. This centre was established in the wake of the King’s demise.
The outpouring of grief has been intense and the flow of people to the Grand Palace huge, which is perhaps no surprise, given the King worked tirelessly for his people throughout his seven decades on the throne.
Pol Maj-General Jirapat Bhumijit, acting deputy chief of the Metropolitan Police, said about 190,000 people went through screening points on Saturday and some 150,000 moved through the checkpoints on Sunday.
National Police Commissioner General Chaktip Chaijinda said at least 3,000 police were deployed to provide safety in the area.
At present, the Grand Palace has opened its Dusit Maha Prasat Throne Hall to members of the public who wish to pay tribute before the late King’s body.
On Saturday, around 29,000 people entered the throne hall and on Sunday some 39,000 people came, Pongsawat said.
Over the past three weekends, the line of mourners in front of the Grand Palace has stretched for kilometres.
Yesterday, the lines were shorter because it was a workday. Yet, mourners said they still had to wait for hours.
Lamai Rungprasert, 40, had been waiting in the line for four hours when she spoke to The Nation. “I come here with my three children. We hope we can pay our respects to our King inside the throne hall today before my children’s new semester starts,” she said. By that stage, her children had taken off their shoes to relax swollen feet.
On Sunday, they had queued for nine hours but missed the chance to get inside the throne hall.
“We had been waiting for nine hours on Sunday already when it started raining and my son passed out. So, we had to call it quits and return home. But today we are back in the queue again,” Lamai said.
Officials have now formed people in queues, scrapping the distribution of queue cards out of concerns that some people might use fake cards to squeeze in.
Aware of the huge crowds of mourners around Sanam Luang, Prayut yesterday instructed the joint safety operation centre to ensure there is free accommodation for mourners from the provinces.
Prayut also recommended organising an exhibition in honour of His Majesty at Sanam Luang so that people can learn more about the King’s works.
HRH Princess Somsavali showed up in front of the Grand Palace yesterday to cook fried chicken, which was handed out to mourners for free. At about 11am, HRH Princess Chulabhorn Valayalaksana’s representative also arrived to hand out 500 boxes of food to mourners.
Meanwhile, activities are being held across the country in remembrance of the great monarch. Among these is the signing of farewell messages. To date, 4.6 million people have signed their love and loyalty for the late King.
The Emerald Buddha Temple, which sits inside the glittering Grand Palace, will reopen for tourists from today.
With the arrival of tourists, mourners will use a new route to get to the Dusit Maha Prasat Throne Hall. They will now enter through Manee Nopparat gate instead of Viset Chaisri gate. The new route is to ensure that the line of mourners doesn’t get mixed up with tourists.