Engineers council says Din Daeng flats can be fixed
The Council of Engineers has agreed that 20 tenement buildings on the Din Daeng Housing Estate do not need demolishing but are in need of urgent repair, the council's president Vira Mavijak said yesterday.
However, the option to demolish them is for the National Housing Authority (NHA) to consider, he said. The inspection by the Council of Engineers and the Engineering Institute of Thailand concurred with an Asian Institute of Technology report that some parts of the flats must be urgently repaired, especially the pillars, which have been eroded by rust, Vira said. He cited as back-up the Public Works and Town & Country Planning Department's two previous inspections, which also found the pillars had deteriorated. Vira said the repairs for buildings numbered 1 to 8 and 20 to 32 would cost Bt49 million-Bt50 million. The NHA board had already approved a repair budget of Bt20 million on May 14. Although urging a quick repair of the flats, Vira said the buildings "will not crumble" as many residents had feared. The council will soon report its findings to the NHA. Adviser to the inspection team, Suwat Chaopreecha, said another major problem area of the Din Daeng structures was the toilets and garbage dumps, because water from toilets and dumpsters has damaged the concrete. No one has tackled the problem because they are public usage areas, he said.
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