GILGIT, Feb 22: Delay in payments by the Northern Areas Public Works Department (NAPWD) has slowed down the pace of work on a 850-feet-long bridge at the Indus River in Thalichi, 30kms south of Gilgit.

Sources told Dawn that construction of bridge had been started in 1998, at a cost of Rs70.5 million, and it was scheduled to complete in June 2001.

But delay in payments on part of the NAPWD as well as collapse of the two supporting concrete pillars at the left bank of the river further delayed the work pace.