Iranian officials have raised 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 Gulf.
According to Iranian media reports,
roads minister Rostam Qasemi will hold talks with his Qatari
counterparts in Doha this week and, among the items up for discussion,
is the idea of a tunnel from the Iranian port town of Deyyar to an
unnamed point in Qatar.
Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organisation managing director Ali Akbar
Safaei said the proposed new tunnel would “harbinger great developments
both for Iran and for Qatar.”
It would also involve great costs which, given the parlous 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 190km. That is around three
times further than the current longest transport tunnel, a 68km section
of Line 6 of the Chengdu metro in southwest China.
It would also be five times longer than the current record-holder for
the longest undersea tunnel – the 38km underwater section of the
Channel Tunnel which connects France and the UK.
Another long tunnel, the Seikan tunnel linking the Japanese islands
of Honshu and Hokkaido under the Tsuguru Strait, has a 23.3km portion
below the waves.
Safaei’s comments suggest Iran would like the new tunnel to
accommodate both road and rail links, although it is unlikely that a
road connection is feasible, given the distances involved. Currently,
the world’s longest road tunnel is the 24.5km Lærdal tunnel in Norway,
which has been carefully designed to tackle feelings of claustrophobia
or inattentiveness that drivers might succumb to, with caverns every 6km
with special lighting to add variety and provide resting places.