Morocco to Build 1,000 km Expressway Linking Tiznit to Dakhla, Boosting African Connections

The realization of this project will bring Morocco closer to sub-Saharan Africa. This will promote the emergence of economic and cultural exchanges between the kingdom and countries such as Mauritania, Senegal or Mali. In 2015, a partnership agreement had been signed in the presence of King Mohammed VI in Laâyoune as part of the new development model for the southern provinces, it is recalled.

Its components are: duplication of national road No. 1 between Tiznit and Laâyoune over 555 km, and widening to 9m of the road between Laâyoune and Dakhla over a distance of 500 km. The State and the four regions concerned (Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra, Guelmim-Oued Noun, Dakhla-Oued Eddahab and Souss-Massa) are mobilizing financing of 8.5 billion DH for the realization of this project, in addition to more than one billion DH for the project of the western bypass of the city of Laâyoune over 7 km and the crossing of the Oued Sakia El Hamra.

The construction of the Tiznit-Dakhla expressway will improve traffic fluidity, service level, comfort and road safety, reduce travel time and transportation costs, and facilitate the transportation of goods between the southern cities of the kingdom and the major production and distribution centers.

According to Yassine Zitoune, site manager at the provisional directorate in charge of the development of national road No. 1 between Tiznit and Dakhla, the progress rate of the section between Tiznit and Sidi Ifni is 41%, and between Guelmim and Zrouila, it is 92%. In a statement to MAP, the director of the provisional directorate in charge of the development of this road, Abdellah Al-Rais, said that the work is 59% completed with sections completed at 84% such as between Tarfaya and Laâyoune. As for the road between Laâyoune and Dakhla over 500 km, it is in the process of being completed.