Colombia awards infrastructure project worth $674.5 million to Spain's Sacyr

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's government on Wednesday awarded a project worth 3.25 trillion pesos ($674.5 million) to Spanish engineering firm Sacyr for reconstructing and maintaining the Dique Canal, the National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) said.

The Dique Canal is an artificial fork of the Magdalena River, in Colombia's Caribbean region, which was built in the 16th century to ease passage between the river and the city of Cartagena.

The project will repair degraded ecosystems and mitigate the impact of possible flooding in a wide region of the South American country. It will initially run for 15 years and is expected to generate some 61,000 jobs.

The environmental mega-project is needed to help the transportation of goods through its waters to Colombia's ports in the Caribbean, the ANI said in a statement.

($1 = 4,818.32 Colombian pesos)

(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Oliver Griffin, editing by Deepa Babington)