Morocco is accelerating work on its first high-speed rail network as part of a 96 billion Moroccan dirhams ($10.5 billion) three-year transport investment programme for hosting the FIFA world cup games in 2030.

The project costs around MAD53 billion and involves linking several Moroccan cities and the purchase of 168 trains, Morocco’s transport and logistics minister Abdul Samad Qayuh told parliament this week.

“Nearly 30 percent of the high-speed train project has been finished and it will be completed on time,” he said in an address broadcast live on the state-run Medi1 TV.

“This project is part of an investment programme approved by the government for the next three years..It involves investment of MAD96 billion, including MAD53 billion for the high-speed rail project..this is the largest investment programme in 10 years.”

In late 2024, Morocco announced the award of contracts worth about $1.86 billion for the high-speed rail project, which involves the construction of a 430-kilometre railway from the western Marrakesh city to Kenitra in the northwest through Casablanca on the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the contracts were awarded to Chinese companies.

“This project will likely transform transportation within the Kingdom by reducing travel times between cities by nearly half,” Qayuh said.

He explained that the journey between Tangier and Marrakech, which currently takes about six and a half hours, will be slashed to nearly three and a half hours, while the travel time between Rabat and Tangier will be reduced to just one hour instead of the current one hour and twenty minutes.

Qayuh said the ministry and the National Railway Office (ONCF) are mobilising funding for the high-speed rail project from global markets.

Morocco has been locked in a drive to develop its infrastructure and logistics sector as it braces to co-host the world cup along with Spain and Portugal.

(Writing by N Saeed; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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