(MENAFN- AFP) Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela urged the Spanish-led consortium expanding the Panama Canal Saturday to leave legal disputes to the "competent authorities" and focus instead on completing its work on the waterway.
The appeal came after the Dispute Adjudication Board hearing a budget overrun dispute for the project ordered the Panama Canal Authority to pay the consortium $17 million for extra labor costs and for a strike called by workers.
"With respect, I am calling on the contractors for the expansion project to hold dialogue with the Panama Canal Authority, to allow work to be completed, to leave legal disputes in the hands of the competent authorities and to avoid mediatized differences that in no way help the image of the contractors, the Canal Authority and the Republic of Panama," Varela said.
The appeal was made as part of Varela's address to the Central American country as the Panamanian congress began its legislative sessions for 2016.
Grupo Unidos por el Canal de Panama consortium's expansion work on the canal, started in 2007, is running well behind schedule.
The extensions were originally meant to have been completed in October 2014 but are now pushed back to an April 2016 deadline.
The work on the century-old canal aims to triple its capacity.
The cost of the work was projected at $5.3 billion, but that has been greatly exceeded.
Varela confirmed that he would inaugurate the expansion work on the canal this year, though he did not give a date.
He also said it was "imperative" to start a study on developing a river basin to guarantee water supplies for human use and for the functioning of the canal.
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