The design plan for the 500-meter tall parallel stucture s, known collectively as The Line, featured in a handout picture provided by Saudi’s Neom via AFP
Published April 9, 2024
Saudi Arabia has scaled back some of its ambitions for its desert megacity Neom, according to a report by Bloomberg. The $1.5 trillion megacity project, which organizers claim will be 33 times the size of New York City, is due to include a 170km straight-line city.
When launching The Line in 2021, the Saudi government had announced that 1.5 million people would be living in the city by 2030. Officials now expect there to be fewer that 300,000 residents by that time, according to a source cited by Bloomberg.
The source said that officials expected only 2.4km of the 170km city to be completed by 2030. As a result of the scaling back, one contractor dismissed some of the workers it employs on site, according to a document seen by Bloomberg.
Neom – part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 strategy to diversify the economy and move away from oil reliance – is being built in the northwestern Tabuk province.
Middle East Eye reported last year that construction was under way on The Line, based on satellite imagery.
The Line is due to have no cars or roads, and a high-speed rail service running across the length of the city, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced three years ago.
Two parallel, mirrored buildings that are nearly 500 meters tall and 120km wide are also planned as part of the project, according to designs uncovered in 2022.
In addition to the horizontal city, Neom is also touted to include an eight-sided city that floats on water, a ski resort with a folded vertical village, and a Red Sea luxury island resort called Sindalah. The Sindalah project is due to open later this year.
Sources told Bloomberg that work was continuing on other parts of the Neom project, and Saudi officials still backed the overall aims of The Line.
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SOURCE: www.zerohedge.com
RELATED: Saudi Arabia lowers predicted number of residents at The Line by 2030
Published April 8, 2024
The Line mega-city, which is the flagship development for Saudi Arabia’s Neom project, will allegedly house fewer than 300,000 people by 2030, down from an original goal of 1.5 million.
News agency Bloomberg has reported that officials expect The Line – a 170-kilometre-long linear city consisting of two parallel, 500-metre-high, linear skyscrapers – to house fewer than 300,000 people by 2030.
When the project was introduced, estimates for how many people would live in the mega city in northwestern Saudi Arabia by 2030 ranged from one million people to 1.5 million.
A source also said that just 2.4 kilometres of The Line’s total 170 kilometres will be completed by 2030, and a document seen by Bloomberg revealed that at least one of The Line’s contractors has begun dismissing some of the workers it employs on the site.
However, “officials have maintained their overall objectives for The Line”, according to the news agency.
The scaling-back of the project is because Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund hasn’t yet approved Neom’s 2024 budget, the source said. Bloomberg has previously reported that the wealth fund is trying to find new cash sources to help finance the project.
The Line, which was originally announced in 2021, would link the Red Sea coast with the northwest of Saudi Arabia and is the most well-known of the Neom projects, which will cover 26,500 square kilometres in northwestern Saudi Arabia in total.
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SOURCE: www.dezeen.com
