Construction begins on ‘world’s largest building’ in Saudi Arabia

Construction of the 1,300ft tall cube-shaped Mukaab skyscraper, set to be the world’s largest building, has officially begun in Saudi Arabia. Its Saudi-funded developer, the New Murabba Development Company, said groundworks are currently 86% complete, and should be completed by 2030, with around 900 workers.

The monolithic building will be the centrepiece of the massive seven square mile New Murabba development in northwest Riyadh. Once completed, the cube will host an enormous atrium with a spiralling tower at its heart, and will have nearly 22million square feet of space for shops, cultural and tourist attractions.

Promotional videos show renderings of an immersive virtual reality, with dragons and huge holographic people moving through the development. Surrounded by a cube structure, the inner spiral can display realistic images around the building. Renderings show spacecraft flying overhead, huge mountain ranges and towering waterfalls all projected on to the sleepy desert scene.

The wider New Murabba development will also have over 100,000 homes, 980,000 square metres of shops, 1.4 million square metres of office space along with hotels, culture venues, a university, an immersive theatre and an ‘iconic’ museum. The megaproject is being developed as part of Saudi Arabia’s Saudi Vision 2030 project, which aims to reduce oil dependence, diversify the economy and build up public service sectors.

But a new investigation has revealed that thousands of workers who are toiling away to sate the ambitions of the Kingdom’s controversial ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, are dying every year . One of the cornerstones of the Crown Prince’s ambitious project is The Line, a scarcely believable car-free metropolis that is planned to stretch more than 100 miles through the desert.

Project chiefs say The Line will ‘redefine liveability’ and ‘transform how we live​’, serving as a sustainable, inclusive example of cities for the future. But figures revealed this week claim at least 21,000 migrant workers have died working on the Crown Prince’s outrageous projects in just eight years since Vision 2030 was first announced.

This shocking statistic is supported by details of abuse and tyrannical treatment of helpless workers in the upcoming ITV documentary Kingdom Uncovered: Inside Saudi Arabia, which airs this Sunday at 22:15pm. The Kingdom relies primarily on a migrant labour force who head to the region in search of a better life but are often forced into savage working conditions for very little pay.

Many allege their passports are confiscated upon arrival, meaning they cannot leave. Saudi law stipulates that workers should never do more than 60 hours a week. But a worker who has been helping to build a high-speed train tunnel for two years told an ITV reporter he regularly works up to 16 hours a day.

Saudi law also says that workers should normally get one day off a week. But the worker claimed it’s ‘normal’ to work for 14 days without a day off. Other labourers told the ITV journalist they are working up to 84 hours a week – much more than the legal maximum.

Speaking anonymously, one worker said: ‘We’re made to work extremely hard. There is little time to rest. We get tired. We suffer from anxiety day and night. Saudi doesn’t care much for citizens from other countries. We are treated like beggars.’

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