Panama City, Mar 24 (IANS): Panama will officially inaugurate its newly expanded canal on June 26, the country's canal authority announced on Wednesday.

The announcement was made during the inauguration of a state-of-the-art scale model of the canal for training purposes, which, according to the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), will "provide additional hands-on experience to pilots and tugboat captains to operate in the expanded Panama Canal", Xinhua reported.

"The scale model training facility will allow us to continue providing world-class service to the global maritime industry, while guaranteeing safe and efficient transits through the soon-to-be inaugurated expanded canal," ACP CEO Jorge L. Quijano said.

"The dream of expansion will become a reality when we inaugurate the biggest infrastructure project in the history of the canal and Panama," he said.

The 35.3-acre training facility features two lakes connected by a channel and includes docking bays, replicas of the new and existing locks, gates and chambers, all at a 1:25 scale, as well as scale model tugboats, ships and bulk carriers.

The enlargement work "is currently 97 percent complete," according to the canal authority.

The massive, multi-billion-dollar project was initially slated to be concluded in October 2014, but has been repeatedly delayed due to construction and labor problems as well as legal issues.