Iranians have proposed the idea of building what would be the world’s longest tunnel, providing it with a physical connection to Qatar across the waters of the Persian Gulf.
According to local media reports, Roads Minister Rostam Qasemi will hold talks with his Qatari counterpart in Doha this week and among the issues up for discussion is the idea of a tunnel from the Iranian port town of Dayyer to an unnamed location in Qatar.
Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization Managing Director Ali Akbar Safaei said the proposed new tunnel would “herald great developments both for Iran and Qatar”, Forbes reported.
It would rack up a hefty bill that, given the perilous state of the Iranian economy, would almost certainly have to be largely shouldered by Qatar.
The shortest distance from the northern tip of the Qatari Peninsula to the Iranian coast near Dayyer is around 190 km. That is around three times lengthier than the current longest transport tunnel, the 68-km section of Line 6 of Chengdu Metro in southwest China.
It would also be fivefold lengthier than the current record-holder for the longest undersea tunnel – the 38-km underwater section of the Channel Tunnel connecting France to the UK.
Another long tunnel, the Seikan Tunnel linking the Japanese islands of Honshu and Hokkaido under the Tsuguru Strait, has a 23.3-km portion below the sea.
Safaei’s comments suggest Iran would like the new tunnel to accommodate both road and rail links, as a road connection is not feasible, given the long distance involved.
Currently, the world’s longest road tunnel is the 24.5-km Lærdal Tunnel in Norway, which has been carefully designed to tackle feelings of claustrophobia or inattentiveness that drivers might succumb to, with caverns every 6 km with special lighting to add variety and provide resting places.
It is very early days for the proposed scheme. The state-owned Press TV said the project would only go ahead once a joint Qatari-Iranian committee finished studies and negotiations on the project.
The idea is expected to feature during Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s visit to Qatar this week. Approval may be given for launching initial feasibility studies on the project, but it is likely to be many years before anyone starts digging a hole.
