Arab Maghreb Union Revives Trans-Maghreb Railway Project, Seeks Consultant

It is before February 15 that the AMU hopes to receive applications for a position it is offering and which concerns the railway line connecting Morocco to Tunisia, passing through... Algeria. Indeed, we can read on its official website: "The Arab Maghreb Union is launching an international call for applications for the recruitment of an individual consultant (or representative of a company) in charge of the Marketing and advertising of the study of the Rehabilitation and Modernization of the Trans-Maghreb railway line."

It would be a grant from the African Development Bank (AfDB) that would have allowed the resumption of the preparatory activities of this project. We are talking here about the Marketing and commercialization file, in addition to the organization, on March 28, of a meeting of potential donors. The AMU is counting on investors for "the resources required for the physical realization of the rehabilitation and modernization works of the trans-Maghreb railway line."

The coordinator of the study carried out by the AMU, Noureddine Omar El Mokhtar, quoted by Al Jazeera.net, reveals that this project, whose cost is estimated at some $3.8 billion, aims to ensure the free movement of citizens and goods, promote trade between the three Maghreb countries, boost tourism in the region and, in addition to all this, reduce travel time, accidents and pollution. The line will extend over about 2,350 kilometers.

On the surface, nothing very political, after all (except perhaps the AfDB grant). Will politics get involved?