Rabat – Spain approved a new budget for technical studies for the underground railway tunnel aimed to link Europe to Africa through Morocco.
Spanish news outlet Vozpopuli said on Sunday that the Spanish government approved €1.73 million to support the technical work of the Spanish Society for Studies on Fixed Communication across the Gibraltar Strait (Secegsa), the public company responsible for coordinating the tunnel project.
The Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility approved the funds for the tunnel project beneath the Strait of Gibraltar, expanding investments to boost the project’s technical studies.
In total, the government provided over €9.61 million to Secegsa since 2022, the same report said.
The number exceeds the annual increase “compared to the €50,000 in annual public funding the state company received before the relaunch of bilateral ties” between Rabat and Madrid.
The same source also gave updates on the initial pre-project plan led by public engineering firm Ineco and scheduled for completion in June 2026.
One of the key developments in the initiative is the suggestion to integrate high-speed passenger rail lines into the future connection, allowing Moroccan cities to be linked directly with destinations across the EU beyond Spain.
Vozpopuli emphasized such developments turn the project from conceptual suggestions to a pre-operational phase in which parties must determine the costs and timelines.
Workers are also planning to conduct a geological assessment of on-site conditions before excavation begins.
As development on the project continues to evolve, observers hope the project could be ready by 2030 marking the World Cup that Morocco is co-hosting alongside Portugal and Spain.
However, Spanish news outlet AS said that German company Herrenknecht confirmed that this is not possible. The project remains technically viable long-term, but cannot be completed by 2030.
Herrenknecht, which conducts the study for the project, stresses that the major obstacle facing the project is geological challenges. The company said this past January that flysch formations, seabed instability, and route depth require preliminary exploratory tunnels, advanced seismic studies, and specially adapted tunnel boring machines.
With this reality, the Germany company asserts the more likely timeline for completion is between 2035-2040.
