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Morocco appoints high-speed rail project manager

6 August 2024

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Morocco's Office National des Chemins de Fer (ONCF) has appointed a team to provide project management services for a high-speed rail link as part of its $37bn strategy to connect more of the country's cities, ports and airports by train.

The contract was awarded to a team comprising French engineering firms Egis and Systra, in association with Moroccan firm Novec.

"The contract covers project management, master planning of operations, maintaining the consistency and technical optimisation of the project, as well as the overall integration of the project," Egis said in an official statement.

The rail link will stretch 375 kilometres (km) from Kenitra on the northwest coast to Marrakech in the south.

In April, MEED reported that ONCF had issued a tender inviting companies to bid for a contract to build the project. The contract covers the design and construction of the railway line, which will have a maximum speed of 350km an hour (km/h), as well as the building of stations, signalling and telecommunications systems, and a maintenance centre in Marrakech.

The project is divided into seven lots, each measuring 36km-64km. The rail link will traverse cities including Rabat-Sale, Casablanca and Marrakech.

The link will extend the Al-Boraq railway, Africa's first high-speed railway system, which runs between Tangier, Rabat and Casablanca. The line started operating in 2018.

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Yasir Iqbal

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