The revelation that Saudi Arabia’s megacity project ‘The Line’ has been scaled back is the latest sign that the kingdom’s audacious state-building enterprise is not going according to plan.
The Line is one of 15 projects announced as part of Mohammed bin Salman’s ambitious NEOM undertaking, which is part of the Crown Prince’s overall ‘Vision 2030’ scheme to reshape his oil-dependent country’s economy and image.
The linear metropolis was meant to be home to around 1.5 million residents by the end of the decade, with plans to ultimately increase its full capacity to nine million.
The 1,640-foot-tall structure was also meant to stretch across 106 miles of desert, but – according to people familiar to the matter, cited by Bloomberg – it will now only be one-and-a-half miles long (a 98 percent reduction in its planned length) and be home to just 300,000 people by 2030.
The report that it has been scaled back is just the latest sign that Bin Salman’s megacity is stalling before even getting off the ground.
Analysts have long expressed scepticism over the project which has touted technology that is yet to be invented. One former worker once described The Line as being ‘untethered to reality’.
Yesterday’s news that Saudi Arabia ‘s megacity project ‘The Line’ has been scaled back was the latest sign that the kingdom’s audacious NEOM state-building enterprise is not going according to plan. Pictured: The Line is seen in concept imagery released by Saudi Arabia
As part of the country’s audacious and futuristic NEOM project, the linear metropolis was meant to be home to around 1.5 million residents by the end of the decade, with plans to ultimately increase its full capacity to nine million people. However, analysts have long expressed their scepticism – saying the plan features technology yet to even be invented
Pictured: Concept imagery shows an imagined sky garden looking out over the Saudi desert
A concept images shows an artist’s rendering of what the interior of The Line would look like, between its two vast 106-mile long landscrapers
When it was first announced, The Line – slated to cost $1.5 trillion (£1.2tn) – was pitched as a new vision for urban design – with computer generated promotional material making it look like something out of a science fiction film.
NEOM as a whole remains one of the largest and most difficult construction projects in history, with the region set to cover a 10,000 square mile swathe of desert – the size of Belgium.
Mohammed bin Salman – or MBS as he is known – sees NEOM as Saudi Arabia’s showpiece to transform the country’s economy and demonstrate futuristic technology that could transform the way people live their lives around the globe.
However, citing sources close to the project in its report about Saudi Arabia downscaling The Line, Bloomberg noted that the country has not yet approved NEOM’s budget for 2024, despite now being well into April.
The publication also said that NEOM’s vast expenditure is beginning to concern officials – suggesting Saudi Arabia’s immense wealth isn’t quite so endless after all.
What’s more, some projects outlined in the Vision 2030 are already expected to be delayed past the end-of-the-decade deadline.
Finance Minister Mohammed Al Jadaan said in December that longer is needed to build ‘factories’ and ‘sufficient human resources’ for the project.
‘The delay or rather the extension of some projects will serve the economy,’ he said.
The feasibility of NEOM and The Line has also long been called into question.
Architect and urban planner Etienne Bou-Abdo said of concept images last year: ‘the 3D images presented are not classical 3D architecture images’, and the designers of the project ‘have rather called upon video game designers’.
He stated that the plan includes ‘a lot of technology that we don’t have today’.
Concept images of The Line released by the kingdom in 2022 showed a vast, structure slicing through the desert near crystal blue ocean waters
The 1,640-foot-tall structure was meant to stretch across 106 miles of desert, but – according to people familiar to the matter, cited by Bloomberg – it will now only be one-and-a-half miles long, a 98 percent reduction in its planned length
A map shows where The Line was set to be built, and how long it would have been. Saudi officials said it would be built in stages, and would eventually cover a 106-mile stretch of desert along the coast of the Red Sea in the western Tabuk province
In a promotional video released by the Kingdom, it was suggested that nine million people could live in The Line (pictured in concept art) at full capacity
The Line’s vast construction was set to extend from the heart of another planned Red Sea megacity, a plank of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s bid to diversify the Gulf state’s oil-dependent economy – to the ocean
Concept pictures show the imagined view between The Line’s two superstructures
A number of The Line’s key features, particularly those related to energy and transport, are based on technologies that do not even exist even in prototype form.
Since its inception, MBS’s vision for the project has changed frequently – with workers finding themselves in the difficult position of having to manage the expectations of a man who is known to have imprisoned his own family.
‘The concept has morphed so much from its early conception that it’s sometimes hard to determine its direction: scaling down, scaling up, or making an aggressive turn sideways,’ said Robert Mogielnicki of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, following the presentation in 2022.
There has also been frequent staff turnover, with some former workers describing the vision for NEOM as being ‘untethered from reality’.
According to a Bloomberg report in 2022, who interviewed 25 employees and saw 2,700 pages of internal documents, the project has been plagued by setbacks.
Attempts to relocate the indigenous population who have lived at the NEOM site for generations, were reported as being ‘turbulent’ – with one incident even descending into a gun battle.
Several key staff have quit, blaming a toxic work environment and a culture of massive overspending without seeing results.
They also described how the project had become a favourite for contractors – including architects and Hollywood production designers – all of whom are taking a cut of Saudi Arabia’s oil riches.
‘I was not alone in realising that it was spurious at best,’ Andy Wirth, an American hospitality executive who worked on Neom, told Bloomberg for its 2022 report.
‘The complete absence of being tethered to reality, objectively, is what was demonstrated there,’ he added at the time.
In its report, the American publication wrote: ‘The chaotic trajectory of Neom so far suggests that MBS’s urban dream may never be delivered.’
Overall, 15 sites have been announced as part of the NEOM megacity.
With names like Xaynor, Zardun and Siranna – NEOM’s destinations are often described in manicured promotional material as ‘sanctuaries’ or ‘oases’.
Computer generated concept images and videos show gleaming structures rising out of the desert, with model-like actors looking on in wonder, or taking part in various activities such as jet skiing or mountain biking.
Salman is hoping to create a desert metropolis known as NEOM. Pictured: NEOM’s ‘Oxagon’ – a futuristic port city – is seen in concept imagery
Sindalah – a luxury island destination being built as part of the NEOM project – is imagined in this concept imagery released by Saudi Arabia
The Line was the first announced in 2017 – and officially in January 2021 – with MBS delivering a presentation – capturing the attention of both city planners, architects and the general public around the world.
The announcement of ‘Oxagon’ – a futuristic port city – followed in November.
Concept images of The Line released by the kingdom in 2022 showed a vast structure slicing through the desert near crystal blue ocean waters.
The megacity was to feature two parallel skyscrapers extending across a swathe of desert and mountain terrain, with mirrored facades on the outside.
Saudi officials said it would be built in stages, and would eventually cover a 106-mile stretch of desert along the coast in the western Tabuk province – with its Western tip pointing out over the Red Sea towards Egypt.
In its original design, if built in the UK, The Line would have been able to stretch between London to Birmingham, or even from London into France.
In US-terms, it was longer than the distance between New York and Philadelphia.
However, unlike city sprawls we are accustomed to today, the vast metropolis would have been contained in the two mirrored structures – each rising 500 meters above sea level, taller than the Empire State building.
At just 200 yards wide, The Line was intended to be Saudi Arabia’s answer to unchecked and wasteful urban sprawl, layering homes, schools and parks on top of each other in what planners term ‘Zero Gravity Urbanism’.
Promotional material says residents will have ‘all daily needs’ reachable within a five-minute walk, while also having access to other perks like outdoor skiing facilities and ‘a high-speed rail with an end-to-end transit of 20 minutes’.
For a train to travel 106 miles in 20 minutes, it would need to be able to travel at 318 miles per hour – 16 miles per hour faster than the Beijing to Shanghai speed line, one of the fastest railway lines in the world.
In his presentation, Prince Mohammed sketched out an even more ambitious vision, describing a car-free utopia that would become the planet’s most liveable city.
The site would be powered by 100 percent renewable energy and feature ‘a year-round temperate micro-climate with natural ventilation’, the promotional video said – something that would be a necessity considering temperatures in Saudi Arabia can range from 27 degrees to 43 degrees.
Other flourishes were proposed too, like flying taxis and robot maids, prompting architects and economists to question its feasibility further.
Officials had earlier said The Line’s overall population would top one million, but Prince Mohammed said the number would actually hit 1.2million by 2030 (other reports have suggested 1.5 million) before climbing even further by 2045.
In a promotional video released by the Kingdom, it was suggested that nine million people could live in The Line at full capacity.
The eye-popping total is part of a hoped-for nationwide population boom that Prince Mohammed said would be necessary to make Saudi Arabia – the world’s biggest crude exporter – an economic powerhouse.
The goal for 2030 is to have 50 million people – half Saudis and half foreigners – living in the kingdom, up from roughly 34 million today.
By 2040 the target is 100 million people, he said in 2022.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman announces ‘The Line’ to be built at NEOM in northwestern Saudi Arabia, January 10, 2021
‘That’s the main purpose of building NEOM, to raise the capacity of Saudi Arabia, get more citizens and more people in Saudi Arabia. And since we are doing it from nothing, why should we copy normal cities?’ Prince Mohammed said at the time.
However, not everyone was convinced at the time.
Writing for the New York Times in 2021, US journalist and author Robert Worth wrote scathingly about the project.
‘To watch [MBS’s] promotional video is to be immersed in a distinctively Saudi form of arrogance, blending religious triumphalism and royal grandiosity,’ he said.
Analysts have also noted that plans for NEOM have often changed course over the years, fuelling doubts about whether The Line would ever become reality.
It was once touted as a regional ‘Silicon Valley’, a biotech and digital hub spread over 10,000 square miles.
But it was also a vehicle for reimagining urban life on a footprint of just 34 square kilometres, and addressing what Prince Mohammed describes as ‘liveability and environmental crises’.
With it being scaled back, it is now unclear whether The Line will still feature its twin skyscrapers seen in the concept images, or if the whole project will have to be reconsidered altogether.
Reports of the scale-back to The Line project coincided with more bad news for Saudi Arabia, after it was announced on Sunday that Saudi Aramco – the state-owned petroleum and natural gas company – saw a 24.7 percent decline in profits in 2023.
In a filing to the Saudi stock market, the oil giant said net income reached 454.7 billion Saudi riyals ($121.25 billion) in 2023 down from 604.01 billion Saudi riyals ($161.07 billion) it reported in 2022.
‘The decrease mainly reflects the impact of lower crude oil prices and lower volumes sold, and weakening refining and chemicals margins,’ Aramco said.
The huge trench can be seen stretching into the distance as foundations for the incredible megacity are dug out in footage from 2022
Construction workers stand on the edge of a vast trench being dug for The Line megacity
Pictured: Construction workers are seen operating excavators in drone footage captured in 2022 when The Line project began
While Saudi officials will have been left red-faced with the news that the project is being scaled back, it will certainly come as a relief to conservationists who raised the alarm over The Line’s environmental impact.
Experts warned last year that the vast mirrored surface would be a ‘death trap’ for millions of birds migrating between Europe and Africa each year.
As Saudi Arabia touted the finished project’s sustainability credentials, researchers identified the construction project itself as one of the 15 most pressing conservation issues to watch in 2024.
And experts have said in a study released in December that a combination of factors mean it poses a huge risk to birds that migrate over Saudi Arabia every year.
These include the mirrored facades, the city’s orientation and the intention to have wind turbines along the top of it.
‘Birds flying into tall windows is a serious problem, and this is a building that is 500m high going across Saudi Arabia, with windmills on top,’ Professor William Sutherland, director of research in Cambridge University’s zoology department, told The Times .
‘It’s also kind of like a mirror so you don’t really see it,’ Sutherland, who led the study, added. ‘So unless they do something about it, there’s a serious risk that there could be lots of damage to migratory birds.’
Nightingales, wheatears, larks, sandgrouse and turtle doves are all species of bird that use the migratory route which could be affected.
Other species known to travel that way include the Egyptian vulture and saker falcon, both of which are endangered globally, The Times reported.
Treyam – another NEOM project announced last month – is an ‘elevated haven’ – a luxury resort, stretching over a desert lagoon, with a nearly half a kilometre long swimming pool on its roof
Looking like something from the future, the complex will stretch across a desert lagoon
NEOM is roughly the size of Belgium and situated on the west coast of Saudi Arabia
The publication said the area The Line is set to occupy is already a bottleneck for an estimated 2.1million birds that travel between Europe and Africa every autumn.
It noted that every year, 988 million birds are killed in collisions with buildings in the US alone, with the risk found to be higher in areas with glass or mirrored buildings.
The news of the scale-back comes just weeks after Saudi Arabia announced its latest wildly ambitious NEOM project: The world’s longest sky pool built on the roof of a 250-room resort.
Treyam – announced in March with more computer generated concept images – is being billed as an ‘elevated haven’ – a luxury complex, stretching over a desert lagoon, with a nearly half-kilometre-long swimming pool on its roof.
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