Representatives from the National Housing Authority (NHA), the Department of Public Works and Town and Country Planning, the disaster prevention sub-committee and residents groups all agreed that Din Daeng housing estate did not need to be demolished, NHA deputy governor Surapol Channoi said.

Instead, sections that have fallen into disrepair will be inspected and repaired, and the affected residents given temporary housing by the NHA, he said.

To ensure residents are kept involved, the Authority will hold a seminar to brainstorm ideas on what to do. Once a consensus has been reached, the NHA would ask the Cabinet for tens of millions baht to repair the dilapidated buildings, Surapol said. The estate's repair budget of nearly Bt50 million last year had been spent, he said.

The debate over whether to demolish the estate began with a December 2002-April 2003 inspection by the Asian Institute of Technology. It classed 60 per cent of the 87 blocks as "dangerously dilapidated". Blocks 1 to 8 and 21-32 were marked as "red zones".

The first set of buildings was built in 1961 and residents moved in two years later.