Photographer: Luke MacGregor / Bloomberg
Photographer: Luke MacGregor / Bloomberg
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman revealed his latest vision for Saudi Arabia’s future beyond oil: a city without cars, roads or carbon emissions.
The 170-kilometer (106-mile) development called “The Line” will be part of the $ 500 billion project called “Neom”, the Crown Prince said in a televised speech on Sunday. Construction is expected to begin in the first quarter.
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A press release described The Line as a “belt of future hyperconnected communities, without cars and roads and built around nature”. According to the report, the city will have 1 million inhabitants and will create 380,000 jobs by 2030. The infrastructure will cost $ 100 billion to $ 200 billion, said the Crown Prince.
Neom is the crown jewel of Prince Mohammed’s plan to diversify the economy of the world’s largest oil exporter. Announced in 2017, the project covers more than 10,000 square miles in a remote area in the northwest of the country. It is described on its website as “a bold and audacious dream” that will become a hub for new technologies and businesses.
The project was plagued by skepticism and political controversy since its launch. Analysts question whether it is realistic and can attract the necessary investment.
“The backbone of investing in The Line will come from the $ 500 billion support to Neom by the Saudi government, PIF and local and global investors over 10 years,” the prince told reporters in Al-Ula, referring to the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund.
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The announcement on Sunday shows the extent to which Prince Mohammed is thinking about life after oil for the kingdom, which earned more than half of government revenue from oil in 2020. The project was the first major development to be announced within Neom .
“Why do we accept to sacrifice nature for development?” said the prince, citing rising sea levels and carbon emissions in a rare way for a Saudi official. The city, he said, would be a “revolution for humanity” with “zero cars, zero streets, zero emissions”.
No trip on the line will be longer than 20 minutes, he said. The city would be built around “ultra-fast traffic and autonomous mobility solutions”, according to the statement.
(Updates with comments in the fifth paragraph, adds the cost of the project in the second.)