Talks bring tunnel linking Spain and Morocco a step nearer

A plan to build a tunnel between Spain and Morocco, establishing the first fixed link between Europe and Africa, has come a step closer after talks between the two countries.

The Spanish development minister, Magdalena Alvarez, met her Moroccan counterpart, Karim Chellab, in Tangier last week as part of a visit by King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain to push forward plans for a 24-mile rail tunnel running beneath the Strait of Gibraltar.

The idea was first mooted in the 1970s and an initial agreement was signed in 1980. But a combination of political, financial and technical obstacles has prevented it becoming a reality.

Now, however, a renewed spirit of cooperation between the two countries has raised hopes that they could realise a concrete symbol of their interdependence.

A route for the tunnel was agreed last December, and Ms Alvarez told Mr Chellab last week that plans for the tunnel had been included in the Spanish cabinet's new transport infrastructure plan.

The tunnel will run from the Punta Paloma on Spain's southern coast to a terminal just east of Tangier to take advantage of the shallower waters to the west of the strait. A shorter route was discounted because the seabed in the narrowest part of the channel is more than 900 metres (3,000ft) below the surface.

At its deepest point the tunnel will run 400 metres below sea level and 300 metres beneath the seabed.

The strait's tunnel will follow a similar model to the 31-mile Channel tunnel.

Two rail tunnels will run 50 metres apart, with a smaller service tunnel running between them.

The main tunnels will be three storeys high and will have connections with the service tunnel every few hundred metres.

Relations between Rabat and Madrid, often strained by territorial disputes, reached a low ebb in 2003 when Moroccan troops occupied Parsley Island, an uninhabited rock off the Moroccan coast.

The number of Moroccan citizens implicated in the Madrid train bombing did little to ease mutual suspicion.

However, a change of government in Spain has helped to improve the atmosphere.

Ms Alvarez and Mr Chellab have agreed to meet again in May to inspect drilling work already under way.

Both sides hope the project will promote trade and tourism across the strait and drive the development of northern Morocco.

At present tourists and lorries cross between Tangier and Algeciras by ferry, which will remain the main mode of transport for a number of years yet.

While both sides have committed more than €10m (£7m) each to preliminary drilling work, there is still no timetable for completing the project, or estimate of the final cost. But they agree that the EU should pay for the main works.