Plans for Saudi Arabia’s grandiose urban project, “The Line,” which is billed as a one-building city in the desert that will span more than 106 miles and eventually house 9 million people, have been revealed.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of the kingdom announced that the futuristic metropolis would be situated in the northwest of the Gulf nation, close to the Red Sea, and would be a part of the Neom project, a massive plan that will be finished in years.
The Line is a projected vertical metropolis that would be 200 meters wide (656 feet) and 500 meters (1,640 feet) above sea level. The press announcement states that it will cover 34 square kilometers, or 13 square miles.
The Line will run solely on renewable energy, without any roads, cars, or pollution, according to the designers, though specifics are limited. According to the press announcement, parts of The Line will be connected by high-speed rail.
Some have questioned the project’s technological viability, while others have called the vision presented in a dazzling promotional video “dystopian.”
The Line is a component of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 rebranding strategy, which aims to transform the kingdom’s economy and compete with its Gulf rivals, such Dubai and Abu Dhabi, as vacation destinations. By the end of the decade, the goal is to have 100 million visitors annually, which is expected to generate billions of dollars in economic benefits for the area.
Nonetheless, Saudi Arabia’s human rights record continues to draw criticism. The largest mass execution in decades took place in March, with 81 men put to death. According to a US intelligence report, bin Salman gave his approval for the operation to apprehend or murder Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi. In the face of intense worldwide condemnation, the crown prince has denied that he gave the order to kill Khashoggi but has stated that he is responsible. In a 2019 interview with CBS, bin Salman declared, “This was a heinous crime.” “But as a Saudi leader, I accept full responsibility, especially since those who committed it were Saudi government employees.”
“Yet, many of the same rights violations against migrant workers continue throughout the region, most frequently in the form of delayed and unpaid wages and confiscations of passports.”
The mirrored skyscraper’s designs represent the most recent phase of Saudi Arabia’s Neom project, a massive three-country development that started building in 2019.
According to reports, the city will be fueled by sustainable energy and managed by artificial intelligence. A big artificial moon, flying taxis, and robot maids are the main attractions of a promised digital paradise.
The plans will put traditional flat, horizontal cities to the test and establish a paradigm for bettering human livability and protecting the environment. According to the news announcement, bin Salman stated, “The Line will address the issues that humanity faces in modern urban life and will shed light on alternate ways of living.”
The Saudi government, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), a sovereign wealth fund led by bin Salman, as well as regional and foreign investors, have contributed $500 billion to the Neom initiative.
The crown prince maintains that the ambitious project is still on course, despite the fact that setbacks have caused Neom’s completion date to be delayed by an additional five years from its original 2025 completion date.
Cautionary tales
There are cautionary tales of numerous failed “super-projects” that have occurred all across the world in recent years.
Six years after it was proposed, the anticipated $38 billion Nakheel Harbour and Tower complex in adjacent Dubai was abandoned in 2009 due to the global economic downturn.
After investing more than $1 billion in its construction, the Chinese government had hoped that the Inner Mongolian city of Kangbashi would eventually have more than 1 million inhabitants; nevertheless, by 2016, just 10% of that number lived there. Other expensive ventures in Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar, and the Yujiapu Financial District in Tianjin, China, also ended up as ghost towns.
When the 330-meter (1,083-foot) Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea, was scheduled to open in 1989, the country wanted it to be the tallest hotel in the world. Known as the “Hotel of Doom,” construction was never finished, and as of 2019, it stood as the tallest vacant structure in the world.
