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In June Spain announced €?2.3 million (£2 million) funding for the design study on the Strait of Gibraltar Morocco-Spain tunnel. This came approximately 3 months after the governments of Spain and Morrocco committed to stepping up efforts to relaunch the project.
Speaking in April, Raquel Sanchez, Spain’s Minister of Transport, Mobility, and Urban Agenda said, “After fourteen years, since October 2009, we are going to give impetus to the studies of a project of maximum geostrategic importance for our countries and for relations between Europe and Africa.”
Sanchez made her remarks alongside Morocco’s Minister of Equipment Nizar Baraka during an encounter that was part of the 43rd meeting of the joint Spanish-Moroccan commission for the tunnel project.
The £2 million comes from the EU’s Recovery, Transformation & Resilience Plan. The Spanish government has already transferred the funds to the Spanish Society of Studies for a Fixed Link through the Strait of Gibraltar (SECEGSA), which will look at options for the project.
Strait of Gibraltar (Morocco-Spain) underwater tunnel project overview
This is a proposed underwater tunnel project that is expected to deliver a fixed link between Morocco and Spain, or rather Africa and Europe.
The tunnel will be built across the Strait of Gibraltar, a narrow strait also known as the Straits of Gibraltar, that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates the Iberian Peninsula in Europe from Morocco in Africa.
The Strait of Gibraltar (Morocco-Spain) underwater railway tunnel project consists of a 38 km-long tunnel from Tarifa to Tangier. Of the 38km, the tunnel would be underwater for 27 kilometres at a maximum depth of 475m and a slope of 3 per cent. |
