Science & Technology

What happened to Saudi Arabia's $1.5tn 105-mile-long megacity ?

By T.K. Randall
April 11, 2024 ·  5 comments

'The Line' would have looked like a huge mirrored wall. Image Credit: YouTube / NEOM Back in 2022, it was revealed that Saudi Arabia, with the backing of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was going to be building a structure like no other - an enormous city, 105 miles long and costing over $1 trillion, that would resemble a giant wall in which up to 9 million people would live.

The building, known as 'The Line', would consist of two 1,600ft buildings running parallel to one another with an entire self-contained city between them, complete with a transportation network, greenhouses for growing food, shops, houses, parks, recreational facilities and everything else needed to live and work there.

Suffice to say, building something like this would be no easy task and it seemed from the outset that the estimated completion date of 2030 was a bit overly ambitious to say the least.

It comes as no surprise, then, that the project has reportedly been scaled back considerably.Documents recently seen by Bloomberg suggest that the planning has been plagued by a number of issues ranging from the Crown Prince's changing demands to the sheer impossibility of the task.

Some of those working on the project have described it as "untethered from reality".

Budgetary issues are also thought to be hampering the process.

As things stand, it is believed that the structure - if it actually goes ahead at all - will be a mere 1.5 miles in length by 2030 - which is 70 times less than the original plan had dictated.

The most recent official progress update video can be viewed below.


Source: The Guardian | Comments (5)

Tags: Megacity