Morocco, Spain accelerate long-awaited submarine tunnel project

The Moroccan Government Council approved Thursday the appointment of Abdelkabir Zhoud as Director General of the National Company for the Studies of the Strait of Gibraltar of the Ministry of Equipment and Water, a step forward in the promising Morocco-Spain maritime tunnel project.

The company is tasked with coordinating with the Spanish Company for Fixed Telecommunications Studies Across the Strait of Gibraltar (SECEGSA), in order to re-examine the underwater tunnel project linking Morocco and Spain.

This appointment is revealing both parties’ desire to accelerate the implementation of this long awaited project, that has been decades in the making.

The Joint Committee was appointed to study the feasibility of unifying the two continents back in 1979, a project that was affected in more than one stage by many factors, including political and diplomatic crises.

SECEGSA recently announced its inclusion among the beneficiaries of European support under Spain’s recovery plan to conduct new studies on this infrastructure.

As part of the draft budget for 2023, the Spanish government allocated 750,000 euros for the company, in order to prepare a new study with the participation of a German company specializing in the preparation studies related to maritime tunnels.

“Although the amount is not huge, it is a gesture from the Spanish government and a message that the project is far from forgotten, and that progress is being made to make it a reality despite the difficulty,” Spanish newspaper Larathon reported.

Izzedine Khresh, a professor of political science and international relations at Hassan II University in Casablanca, said that the appointment of a general manager of the National Company for the Studies of the Strait of Gibraltar is a signal from Morocco of its desire to push this project towards activation and bring it into existence.

This project has long been the subject of a Moroccan-Spanish agreement, and promises significant material gain and logistical ease to both countries and continents.

With the return of Spanish-Moroccan relations to normal following a year-long crisis, cooperation between the two countries have accelerated across multiple fields.

ThIs particular project includes the construction of a tunnel across the seabed at the intersection of the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and it was previously agreed that the tunnel would be 28 kilometers long at a depth of 300 meters linking Punta Paloma (Tarifa) with Malabata (Tangier).