Plans are being drawn up in Tunisia for the Maghreb Motorway project. A budget of US$1.8 million has been set to pay for the necessary preliminary studies. The Maghreb Motorway project is intended to improve transport connections between the countries of the Maghreb area of North Africa; Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania (as well as the disputed Western Sahara). The various countries involved will be responsible for their own sections of the network. Major challenges remain however, not the least of which is the political instability afflicting some of the nations in the Maghreb Region. Various rebel groups are active, with parts of Algeria and Libya in particular still proving dangerous. Algeria has very strict control over its borders, with crossings being very restricted due to problems with insurgents and the political tensions with its neighbours. But for the Maghreb Motorway plan to succeed, all of the national borders between the five nations will have to be more open. Meanwhile political tensions both within the countries and between the separate nations will have to be resolved.
