A brief on Multi Sectorial Rehabilitation & Improvement Project (MSRIP) Asian Development Bank (ADB) Funded Project Cost Rs. 4560,000 (Million)

The Multi Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (MSRIP) is the first ever Asian Development Bank (ADB) supported investment Project in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ&K) to make concentrated efforts in rehabilitating and reconstruction essential physical and social infrastructure which could not be attended during more than five decades mainly due to resource constraint. The Project has been formulated on the basis of a package of especially urgent needs in Health, Education, Water supply, Roads and Power Sectors. This will bridge the investment together with the needed institutional strengthening of respective public agencies are expected to provide the basis for sustainable economic growth and help to reduce poverty in AJK. The project envisages interventions in the following components.

Based on the population census of 1998 and taking into account the annual increase the current population is 3.513 million with roughly 88% living in rural areas. Population density is 258 per sq. km. against 187 in Pakistan. Northern AJK being mostly mountainous is economically under developed. Some areas have inadequate infrastructure and population is mostly dependent upon the rural economy & remittances from abroad. Land holdings are small with 0.246 hectare per capita and the cultivated area is only 13% of the total geographical area. About 42% of the area is under the administrative control of the Forest Department of which approximately 11% is commercially exploitable.

The main objectives of the project are:

• Reduction in poverty from 35% to 22% by 2009.


• Improved access to economic can social services.

Financial Plan