Spain and Morocco Accelerate Plans for Underwater Tunnel Linking Casablanca to Madrid Before 2030 World Cup

Morocco and Spain want this rail link via an underwater tunnel to be operational before the 2030 World Cup they are co-hosting with Portugal. This long-standing project was reactivated in February, during the high-level Morocco-Spain meeting. "This is a new stage in the relaunch of a project whose journey we began in 1981," Raquel Sánchez, the Spanish Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, said in April.

Since then, the studies carried out by the Spanish study company SECEGSA confirm the feasibility of the project and the possibility of completing its realization in five years, reports Hespress, recalling the renewed commitment of the Moroccan and Spanish authorities to realize this tunnel under the strait whose strategic importance for the two countries and for the European and African continents is no longer to be demonstrated.

The European Union, the United Kingdom, China and the United States support this project which, according to them, will strengthen the links between Africa and Europe. The World Bank, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and the Arab Bank, as well as Asian countries such as Japan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are also interested in this project.

This rail link under the strait that will connect Spain and Morocco, and Africa and Europe by extension, will help reduce transport and logistics costs and promote trade between the two continents. It will also facilitate the movement of people and strengthen the ties between the African and European peoples. In the medium term, it should allow the transit of more than 13 million tons of goods and 12.8 million passengers per year, according to SECEGSA data.