The state-run Transport Company will increase its bus and passenger-van services by 3,000 to a total of some 9,000 trips per day from April 10-13, in order to accommodate a sharp rise in the number of passengers expected to travel out of Bangkok ahead of the long Songkran holidays period.

Rice plants in some 200,000 rai (32,000 hectares) of fields in Nakhon Ratchasima’s eight districts are dying due to the lack of water after months without rain, an agricultural official said on Tuesday.