Saudi Arabia has given Rabat $200m to help fund Morocco’s $2.5bn high-speed railway that will run between Tangiers and Casablanca.

Rabat has requested a total of €400m ($492m) from its Middle Eastern neighbours to achieve all the funds needed to complete the project.

The government is already providing MD4.8bn ($585m) for the project with a further $122m coming from the Hassan II Fund for Economic & Social Development, $231m from France and other European donors and $1.5bn worth of loans.

In May, France’s Systra won the project management contract for the civil engineering work for the first phase of the railway (MEED 4:5:10).

Systra leads a consortium that will now manage and design the track between Kenitra and Tangiers so that it will be a high-speed line.

Other companies in the consortium include Systra’s Moroccan subsidiary Systra Maroc and other local consulting firms.

This work is scheduled to take a little less than three years to complete.

In March, France’s Alstom won a deal to supply trains for the first phase of the high-speed rail network.

The first phase of the network involves building a 200-kilometre high-speed rail line along the country’s Atlantic coast between the cities of Tangier and Kenitra. The link will be used by trains running at 320km an hour and should be in operation by December 2015.

Tenders for major construction deals on the railway line will follow in early 2011.