The probability of completion of the Morocco-Spain transcontinental tunnel is 3 out of 5, estimates The Telegraph, before describing the genesis of this old project. The idea of connecting Africa and Europe was born in the 1930s. “The idea of connecting Spain to Morocco by an underwater tunnel has been crossing the minds of political leaders for almost a hundred years. . As early as the 1920s, the pre-Franco Spanish government was already talking about this connection between Europe and Africa. The project took a major turning point in 1979, when the kings of Spain and Morocco signed an agreement to begin feasibility studies, thus marking the beginning of concrete steps with the creation of a Spanish public body to initiate the project », Recalls the British daily.
Read:The Morocco-Spain tunnel before 2030
In 1980, two study companies were created: the Spanish Society of Studies for Fixed Communications across the Strait of Gibraltar (SECEGSA) in Spain and the National Society for Studies of the Strait (SNED) in Morocco. Afterwards, the realization of the project came to a halt. Since October 2009, studies on this tunnel to connect Spain and Morocco, and by extension Europe and Africa, have been suspended. Hope was reborn last year. In February 2023, the project was reactivated during the High-Level Meeting held in Rabat. The two countries agree in April 2023, during the meeting of the Spanish-Moroccan Committee, to establish a work plan for the next three years and to carry out feasibility studies for a dedicated tunnel for telecommunications.
Since then, the project has been on track. The site must be delivered before the holding of the World Cup which Morocco will co-organize alongside Spain and Portugal in 2030.
To read: The tunnel under the Strait of Gibraltar: a dream soon to come true?
38.5 kilometers long, including 27.7 kilometers underwater, the tunnel under the strait should connect Punta Paloma, near Tarifa, to Tangier in Morocco. This route “will promote the development of transport networks between Spain and Morocco and will create an unprecedented space for cooperation between the European Union and the Maghreb”, assures the Spanish Society for Studies on Fixed Communications across the Strait. of Gibraltar (SECEGSA). According to Spanish authorities, the tunnel will connect Madrid and Casablanca in five and a half hours, which is faster than the current 12-hour journey by car and ferry.
Health
