On April 9, 2009, SNCF President Guillaume Pepy and Karim Ghellab, Minister of Transport in Morocco, signed two contracts which establish the conditions for the provision of technical assistance and expertise services from SNCF for the high speed railway line linking Tanger and Kenitra (north of Casablanca). The contracts were awarded despite the protocol signed in October 2007 between the French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the King of Morocco Mohammed VI, concerning the development of the high speed line project. The first contract for technical assistance ensures project coordination and coherence, and the second one for expertise services ensures track and rolling stock design, construction, operation, exploitation and maintenance, shows the official press release issued by SNCF.
According to the Moroccan Minister of Transport, SNCF International and Inexia, another branch of SNCF, will design, build and ensure track maintenance. They will also help Moroccan Railways to manage the rolling stock. The EUR 1.8 Billion project will be finalized in 2016 and it will carry 8 million passengers.
Source: SNCF
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