After the National Housing Authority's (NHA) board meeting on Wednesday ended inconclusively, pending expert opinion, the president of Council of Engineers, Vira Mavijak, said the council and the Engineering Institute of Thailand would complete an inspection of the structures within a week.

Resident Damrongpan Kiddee said he had documents of the NHA's development plan from five years ago, which proposed demolishing 32 flats and turning the low-income housing in the heart of the city into a commercial complex and condos.

He believed this was what the NHA governor was aiming for to obtain commercial gain. The NHA had never tried to improve the buildings until they had deteriorated, and was now using it as an excuse to demolish them, he alleged.

Damrongpan said the figures of Bt250,000 in compensation plus Bt10,000 for moving expenses were from five years ago. Bt500,000 compensation is probably still too little.

NHA governor Pornsak Boonyodom urged them to be patient. Don't worry, we'll talk with everybody.  You can't blame the NHA for letting these buildings deteriorate in order to seek demolition, because we've been repairing them since 2003," he said.

Council of Engineers expert Ekkasit Limsuwan, head of the inspection team, said they would first gather data from a report by the Asian Institute of Technology, which said the buildings were beyond worthwhile repair.