The National Housing Authority is leaning towards tearing down the Din Daeng Housing Estate's 20 rundown tenements, as repairs might not be cost-effective, but occupants vow to hold protests tomorrow and Saturday over any loss of their homes.

Social Development and Human Security Deputy Minister Poldej Pinprateep said yesterday the NHA had received informal opinions on the buildings' structural integrity from the Engineering Institute of Thailand and the Council of Engineers and was waiting for a final report.

Neither agency would categorically state whether the "red-zone" flats should be demolished, leaving the NHA to make that decision, he said.

The NHA had provisionally concluded the 20 buildings would need to be completely rebuilt, as the Bt50 million needed to repair them might not be worth it for their limited life-span, he said.

Besides, the government would not use taxpayers' money to fix the flats. If repairs were to go ahead, the NHA would have to raise rents, from Bt300 to Bt2,200. The NHA should not have to shoulder the financial burden. The residents would have to help, he said.

The residents would have their say on the matter and had priority in moving back in. The NHA was reaching a good understanding with them and was formulating a clear plan for moving forward, he said.

Affirming that profit was not the motive, Poldej said he was not worried about protests because every decision taken was based on public security.

Although the reconstruction project did not need to go to the Cabinet for consideration because it required no government budget, Poldej said he would keep the Cabinet informed about developments. He said it would be at least a year before the first building would be knocked down.

NHA governor Pornsak Boonyodom said on Sunday he would invite the committees from the 20 buildings at risk to the NHA's head office to explain what the NHA would do. Then officials would visit the residents to work out the best way to move people out and possibly leave their children who attended neighbouring schools with relatives who remained in the area.

As for the new buildings' construction budgets, it would have to be thoroughly recalculated because the NHA had limited funds of Bt50 million, which was insufficient to build the new flats.

Upon learning of the NHA's policy to remove the buildings, Ratchareuk Paorohit, a leading member of the 21st-32nd flats' residents, said they would never accept it, because nearly 1,000 households would be left with no place to make a living and children with no place to study.

This decision made them feel hopeless and lose their faith in the NHA, he said, adding that they did not believe the NHA had a real management system to provide them with temporary shelters.

As the two engineering groups have said they would only repair some parts of the building, the residents believe the NHA had already made up its mind but wanted the two agencies to back it up, he said.

The 20 flats' residents would gather and protest against this move by the NHA, he said. They would stage a rally in front of the NHA's office tomorrow and would gather at the apartment building in front of the Labour Ministry on Saturday to demand that Poldej talk with them, he said.

"They're a bully, they know poor people have nowhere else to go. I believe the NHA has a big plan to build a complex to sell units to rich people. We will not have that," he said.