The estate's 45,000 residents, currently occupying its 9,200 rooms, will be given priority entitlement to own a room priced between Bt700,000 and Bt800,000. About 40,000 new civil servants from the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and the Labour Ministry will then also be given rights to own them, said Watana Muangsook.

Construction could be completed in two and a half years, he said.

Watana said he would discuss the idea next week with the National Housing Authority (NHA), which had built the original estate for low-income people, and would ask the agency to allow the residents to purchase property rights in the new estate instead of leasing out the rooms to them, as is currently the case.

Instalment payments over 30 years for a 50-square-metre room worth nearly Bt1 million would cost about Bt4,000 a month and, since the residents have already paid up to Bt3,000 monthly in the old estate without getting any property rights, they should be happy to accept demolition and reconstruction as it would allow them to own their property, the minister said.

Watana said he would seek the Cabinet's approval on Tuesday regarding the proposal that residents should each receive compensation of Bt250,000 and moving expenses worth Bt5,000 to Bt10,000 per room.

NHA deputy governor Surapol Channoi confirmed that demolition of the estate had already begun, and that a survey in 2004 had revealed there were 1,200 families which wanted to move - while 2,000 others said they would go away and then move back in once the rebuilding was completed.

On Monday, the NHA will set up a committee to oversee assistance for residents and new building designs, Surapol said.

The NHA has prepared urban Ban Ua Athorn Housing estates for the residents to move into, including 400 units in the Rangsit area, 200 in Min Buri, and 400 units in Bueng Kum, he said.

"The evacuation will proceed gradually, but we will not buy any more time," Surapol added.

A Block-2 resident at Din Daeng Housing Estate, identified only as Phoo, said she had lived there since 1956 when the rent was only Bt150 a month, although the estate has now become a downtown location and her food-vendor business yields monthly income of nearly Bt10,000.

She insisted the buildings were still structurally sound. If the government demolishes them, it should compensate the residents for the loss of work opportunities and also grant them a special discount on the Ban Ua Athorn housing, she added.

The government's safety concerns over are based on a December 2002-April 2003 inspection by the Asian Institute of Technology, which found that more than half of the estate's 87 blocks were dangerously dilapidated. The report marked blocks 1 to 8 that were 40 years old and blocks 21-32 as "red zones".