Commercial Projects

Saudi Arabia’s 170km City Project, The Line, Scaled Down

The megacity is now expected to span just 2.4 kilometres by 2030.

Updated on

April 23, 2024

The Mirror Line — An impression of The Line. PHOTO | COURTESY

Saudi Arabia has scaled down its plans to build a 170 kilometre-long linear city, The Line, with the same now expected to span just 2.4 kilometres by 2030.

According to media reports, the $500 billion city that was envisaged to host nine million people on completion will now house about 300,000 people by that time.

The Line is a major component of the $1.5 trillion Neom project – a futuristic city development in the northwest of the country, near the Red Sea.

Neom is the biggest project within Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s comprehensive strategy to diversify the oil-dependent economy of Saudi Arabia.

The Line was pitched as an ecological utopia, symbolizing Neom’s vision of ‘Zero Gravity Urbanism’. Organisers said it would be 33 times the size of New York City.

Within its sky-high mirrored walls, stretching 600 feet wide, the city promised vertically layered spaces for living, working, and leisure, aiming for unparalleled urban efficiency, as highlighted in its early promotional materials.

The Line is also envisaged to be car-free, connected end-to-end via high-speed railway, and powered entirely by 100 percent renewable energy.

Staff lay-offs

Following the scaling down of the project, at least one contractor has started to dismiss a portion of workers employed on site, as reported by Bloomberg.

Agents of Neom and the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund, the main entity that owns and is funding the project, declined to comment on the story.

Crown Prince Mohammed envisions Neom as a city that will overhaul Saudi Arabia’s economy and serve as a testing ground for revolutionary technologies.

In addition to The Line, Neom includes an industrial city, ports, and tourism sites. It is set to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games at Trojena mountain resort.

Satellite image

The project is believed to have begun early last year, with a satellite image taken in May 2023 showing construction of the base village and excavation activity along The Line in Saudi Arabia’s northwestern Tabuk province.

The pullback on the project comes as a surprise amid reports that the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund has yet to approve Neom’s budget for 2024.

People familiar with the matter have recently stated that the financial realities of the trillions of dollars required are starting to cause concern at the highest levels of the Saudi government as it tries to fulfil its Vision 2030 program.

Already, Kingdom officials have indicated that certain projects outlined in the ambitious program will experience delays extending beyond 2030.

Finance Minister Mohammed Al Jadaan said in December 2023 that “a longer period is needed to ‘build factories, build even sufficient human resources,” adding that the delay or rather the extension of some projects would serve the economy.