According to estimates by experts consulted by the North American magazine Newsweek, the tunnel between Morocco and Spain should require an investment of 6 billion euros. The construction of this fixed link between the two countries was conceived by Kings Hassan II and Juan Carlos I in 1979. Two study companies were created a year later: the Spanish Society for Studies on Fixed Communications across the Strait of Gibraltar (SECEGSA) in Spain and the National Society for Studies of the Strait (SNED) in Morocco.
Since October 2009, studies on this tunnel, which would connect Spain and Morocco, and by extension Europe and Africa, have been suspended. It was not until February 2023 that the project was reactivated at the High-Level Meeting held in Rabat. The two countries agreed in April 2023, at 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.
Read: Morocco-Spain Tunnel: Obstacles to the Start of Work
During an official visit to Morocco last March, the Spanish Minister of Transport, Oscar Puente, announced after a one-on-one meeting with his Moroccan counterpart Nizar Baraka, that “a date is being finalized to hold the 44th meeting of the Spanish-Moroccan Joint Committee of the project in order to continue the studies.” The experts, gathered within the Joint Intergovernmental Committee, had decided in 1996 to opt for the construction of a tunnel rather than a bridge, recalls The debate.
Thus, the project foresees the construction of two underwater tunnels 28 kilometers long and with a maximum depth of 475 meters, to connect Punta Paloma, west of Tarifa, to Malabata, in the north of Morocco. It would eventually allow the movement of 12.8 million passengers and 13 million tons of goods between the two countries and the two continents, according to SECEGSA projections.
