Saudi Arabia's 170km straight city project is facing difficulties

Saudi Arabia will shorten the length of the city from 170km to 2.4km with a capacity of only 300,000 residents.

Saudi Arabia is adjusting plans for the ambitious NEOM project . This desert development project plays a key role in Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman's plan to help Saudi Arabia reduce its dependence on oil exports. However, the project's 2024 budget has not been approved, Interesting Engineering reported on April 11.

The entire mirror design of The Line city. (Photo: NEOM)

The NEOM megacity will include 10 regions, including the floating port city of Oxagon and the Trojena ski resort. However, the most talked about part of the project is The Line , the 170km long linear city. The project includes two parallel skyscrapers with a height greater than the Empire State Building when completed. The building's mirror cladding will help it blend into the arid environment. The entire city will be located between that building.

According to the plan, The Line city will have a capacity of 1.5 million people by the end of the decade. The futuristic city aims to be self-sufficient with food growing facilities and high-speed transportation. However, according to sources familiar with the project shared with Bloomberg, the city's construction plan is shrinking in scale , from 170 km to 2.4 km when built in 2030. Therefore, the city's capacity will be reduced. also decreased to 300,000 residents.

The project will be completed in the future but with a longer time frame. The impact of these decisions was immediately apparent, with at least one contractor laying off workers at the construction site.

The estimated cost for the NEOM megacity project is about 1.5 trillion USD . Funding for the project mainly comes from the Public Investment Fund (PIF) headed by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. The downsizing of The Line reveals the financial reality of the project. The fund's cash reserves fell to $15 billion as of last September, its lowest level since 2020.

Authorities said other aspects of the NEOM project continued as planned. The luxury tourist island Sindalah is expected to be inaugurated this year. Plans to hold the Winter Olympics in Trojena in 2029 have also not been scrapped. Project NEOM is also designed to serve as a testing environment for new technology. PIF has spent more than $8 billion to build solar and wind farms in the region, used to create green hydrogen to replace fossil fuels as Saudi Arabia seeks to reduce oil exports and diversify its economy. .