MUZAFFARABAD, Aug 12: The United Kingdom has offered a soft loan of 20 million pounds sterling for a rural bridge rehabilitation project in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Two officials from Azad Jammu and Kashmir will soon visit Britain on the invitation of a bridge manufacturing company there.

The offer, official sources told Dawn, was recently conveyed to the AJK Communications and Works Minister Chaudhry Tariq Farooq by the British High Commissioner to Pakistan Mark Lyall Grant.

“Yes, the British government has offered to support a credit proposal of Mabey and Johnson for 20 million pounds sterling for the supply of a bridge system to the AJK government to be launched in rural areas,” a senior official in the planning and works department confirmed to Dawn.

The official said that Mabey and Johnson was “the world leader in the design and manufacture of pre-fabricated, modular, steel bridges”.

These bridge systems are used worldwide for a variety of purposes, from urban flyovers to emergency, temporary or permanent situations, he said.

The official said the AJK government had already launched a number of bridges of the above type on the main rivers and stream crossings and had found them very successful in view of the geographical conditions and terrain of the area.

According to him, steel bridges are more appropriate for remote rural areas of AJK than, say, concrete or suspension bridges, because the former are cheaper to build, operate and maintain.

The official said the AJK government had moved a strong case to the economic affairs division through the Kashmir and Northern Areas affairs division for further processing of this offer.

After the acceptance of the EAD, the concept clearance paper of the project would be submitted to the Planning and Development Division of Pakistan through Kana division, he added. Meanwhile, AJK secretary works Mir Bashir Hussain and superintending engineer for highways, Mubashirul Haq, have been invited by Mabey and Johnson for a 5-day tour to the UK to inspect the bridges.

The AJK government has fully endorsed the tour whose expenditures, according to a notification, would be borne by the bridge manufacturing company.