(FORTUNE Magazine) – Britain and France, after talking for 200 years about digging a tunnel under the English Channel, finally got around to asking for proposals from private industry (FORTUNE, January 6). In January the two governments chose a plan proposed by Channel Tunnel Group-France Manche, an Anglo-French consortium of ten construction companies and five banks. The group expects to complete the 30-mile railroad ''chunnel'' by 1993 at a cost of $7 billion, all privately financed. A $1.4-billion stock offering is planned for 1987.