RABAT, June 3, 2012 (AFP)
RABAT, June 3, 2012 (AFP)
Seven months after work officially began on the Arab world’s first high-speed railway, opponents of the Moroccan project are building up steam, claiming the cash should be spent to help the poor.
The 350-kilometre (215-mile) connection between Casablanca and Tangiers, via the capital Rabat, will slash journey times between the north African country’s economic hubs from nearly six hours to just over two hours, with trains zooming along at up to 320 kilometres per hour (200 mph).
Moroccan leaders have heralded the rail link as a key step in modernising the country after last year’s Arab Spring uprisings ushered in a time of major political change across the region.
But with a price tag of 25 billion dirhams (2.3 billion euros, $2.8 billion), an enormous sum in a country where more than half the population of 33 million lives in poverty, opponents are working to derail the project.
“It’s not a priority for Morocco,” said Omar Balafrej, a member of the “Stop TGV” anti-train collective.
The group gets its name from the French abbreviation for high-speed trains, and the TGV initials are used primarily by the French national rail operator SNCF.
“Twenty-five billion dirhams? That’s the equivalent of 25,000 rural schools, 16,000 libraries, 10,000 media libraries and 25 university hospital centers,” Balafrej said.
The French firm Alstom has signed a 400-million-euro ($500 million) contract to deliver 14 TGVs that would go into service in Morocco in December 2015.
Detractors say the project unfairly favours French companies and in September, France’s then-president Nicolas Sarkozy attended a groundbreaking ceremony alongside Morocco’s King Mohammed VI.
The plan is to eventually extend the high-speed line to Marrakesh and Agadir, officials have said.
