Panama Canal, a key passage that links the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and traversing across the Isthmus of Panama, will finally get its much-needed expansion leading to its inauguration in May.

Panama Canal's expansion was announced last Saturday by President Juan Carlos Varela in his state-of-the-nation address, wherein he stated that the country will once again be on the spotlight for a "major international occurrence" when the project will be finally completed and inaugurated "sometime in May 2016."

In a report by Yahoo! News, work on the centuries-old Panama Canal was spearheaded by a Spanish consortium called Grupo Unidos por el Canal de Panama. The expansion which began in 2007 was estimated at $5.3 billion and is way behind the expected schedule. Originally, the extension on the canal to triple its accommodation was supposed to be done and over with in October 2014 but it was moved to a later deadline in April 2016.

Pres. Varela's revelation on the Panama Canal's expansion also came with an appeal to the Spanish consortium to focus on finishing the extension on the waterway and leaving legal disagreements to appropriate authorities.

Pres. Varela who spoke to the unicameral National Assembly stated, "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."

The call made by Pres. Varela came amid an order by a Dispute Adjudication Board who heard a budget overrun row and has instructed the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) to pay Grupo Unidos por el Canal de Panama (GUPC) $17 million for a strike initiated by workers and for extra labor costs.

According to Fox News Latino, the GUPC consortium headed by Sacyr Vallehermoso and the ACP have recently swapped accusations in the media and has passed on the blame with each other for the delays in the Panama Canal expansion specifically on the third set of locks.

Currently, the 50-mile Panama Canal handles approximately 6 percent of world trade. The ongoing construction of the third set of locks will allow the waterway to make room for "post-Panamax" ships. These ships carry up to 12,000 20-foot-long cargo holds and are three times larger than what the canal can presently accommodate.

In addition, Latin American Herald Tribune reported that the Panama Canal's expansion is around 96 percent done. Thus, come its inauguration in May, it can take in about 600 million tons of annual cargo.