Spanish firm Herrenknecht Iberica has won a EUR296,400 ($307,483) contract to conduct a drilling feasibility study for an undersea rail line linking Morocco and Spain.

According to local media reports, the study is expected to start immediately and be completed by June.

In June last year, the Spanish government revived the Morocco to Spain undersea rail link project after allocating about $2.5m for a renewed design study. 

The project was launched in 2003 but was put on hold after the 2008 financial crisis. It has undergone several rounds of feasibility studies but remains in the study stage after nearly two decades of funding-linked delays.

The plans involve a double-rail track and an additional service line stretching 38.5 kilometres (km) between Tarifa in Spain and Tangier in Morocco. A 28km section will run under the Mediterranean Sea at a maximum depth of 475 metres.

The maximum depth of the tunnels will be 300 metres. Each single-track tunnel will have an inner diameter of 7.9 metres, while the service gallery will be 6 metres in diameter.

The two countries are developing the project jointly through Morocco’s National Society for Strait of Gibraltar Studies and the Sociedad Espanola de Estudios para the Comunicacion Fija a Traves del Estrecho de Gibraltar.

In 2006, Swiss engineering company Lombardi Engineering was selected to design the tunnel and the preliminary studies for the project were completed two years later.