The 103-kilometre stretch of highway will form an integral part of the proposed Mediterranean highway. The ambitious project involves upgrading some 250 kilometres of roads and rough tracks and laying 300 kilometres of new road along the northern tip of the kingdom (MEED 10:01:03).

Two Turkish firms, an Italian and a Spanish company were among the five groups to have bid for the MD 920 million ($94 million) contract. No French companies submitted bids for the contract, which is being financed by the EU through the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership programme. The original offers were ruled invalid by DRCR as some of the companies bidding lacked the requisite experience, while others submitted proposals that were incomplete or contained errors. The local Projemaand CITare the consultants.

The Jebha-Al-Hocima section is split into two lots. The first lot is for a road linking Jebha with the small port of Cala Idris, 59 kilometres to the east. The seven-metre-wide road will pass through the rough terrain of the Rif mountains, requiring the contractor at one point to build a 1-kilometre-long tunnel. The second package for the road between Cala Idris and Al-Hocima is expected to require less technical expertise as a road network already exists between the two towns. The selected contractor will be required to upgrade the highway and in places increase the width from four metres.

The total cost of the highway, which will stretch from Tetouan, just south of the Strait of Gibraltar, to Saidia, close to the border with Algeria, is around MD 4,555 million ($463 million). Italian contractors have begun work on the eastern sections of the road - the 84-kilometre Al-Hocima-Ras Afrou stretch and the 92-kilometre Ras Afrou-Ras Kebdana stretch. Project costs for the sections are put at MD 780 million ($79 million) and MD 600 million ($61 million) and are being financed by the Italian and Moroccan governments, and the Abu Dhabi Development Fund respectively.

The UK arm of Japan's Nippon Koeiis the consultant for the section west of Jebha to Tetouan. Work is expected to begin on the preparation of tender documents for the segment in early October, and contractors will be invited to submit bids early next year to upgrade the 120-kilometre-long road between the towns.