Passengers waiting for their express boats at Sibu Express Boat Terminal.

SIBU: Sarawak Rivers Board (SRB) yesterday approved three additional trips to cater for the big crowd returning upriver to get ready for the new school term.

Its assistant controller (Region II) here Hatta Morshidi said two of the trips were for the Sibu/Kapit sector, and one for the Sibu/Song sector.

There was already a huge passenger crowd at the Sibu Express Boat Terminal here yesterday.

“We recorded 420 passenger arrivals and 593 departures at 9.30am today (yesterday),” he said.

Hatta recalled that on the last day of their first phase of operation on Dec 24, the total passenger movement was 2,555 persons, of which 1,360 were departures and 1,195 arrivals.

The next phase of the operation starts today, and will end on Jan 1, next year.

He added that river blocks and daily patrols would be carried out to ensure that express boat operators toed the line on safety compliance.