A Neom with no one? Despite mighty expectations, the reality is that the mega project, The Line, a 170 km horizontal skyscraper that was expected to house 1.5 million people by 2030, will now accommodate fewer than 300,000 people. It is the result of Saudi Arabia scaling back its medium-term ambitions for the desert development of Neom, the biggest project within Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030, per Bloomberg.
The out-of-this-world idea was conceived to rid the Kingdom’s economy of its reliance on fossil fuels. That The Line is a gigaproject requiring decades to complete is no secret. Officials have declared since day one that The Line would be built in stages and they expect it to ultimately cover a 170-kilometer stretch of desert along the coast in the coming decades.
Still, it is a setback of sorts to have only 2.4 kilometers of the project completed by 2030, making the completion of the entire project a distant dream that some residents may not even be alive to witness. Neom City, which detractors have dubbed MBS’s pipe dream, is getting speedily developed as witnessed on several update videos. From on-site clearing work, foundation setup, and piling operations on the first phase of the development, touted to be completed by 2030, the massive operation seen in the video is the world’s biggest earthworks operation.
According to Denis Hickey, Chief Development Officer of The Line, come 2030, the first phase of The Line will be complete. He stated, ‘The energy within Saudi Arabia at the moment is incredible.’ “We’ve done a lot of the foundation work, literally and figuratively. I think the construction of The Line is unique in terms of its industrialization and its modularized approach.”
The Line is accompanied by other projects like an industrial port Oxagon, a mountain resort called Trojena, and a seahorse-shaped island, Sindalah, which are racing towards completion in comparison to The Line.
The slow progress, despite the fancy packaging and insanely expensive budgets, has given rise to a reluctance among foreign investors to commit funds to the kingdom. In recent months, Crown Prince MBS has announced over a dozen more projects in addition to the aforementioned ongoing, over the top developments that involve carbon-free high-tech living complete with fake moons, no cars, and robots.
Some of these projects are Elanan, a wellness sanctuary, Gidori, a luxurious golf community, Treyam, a one-of-a-kind luxury resort for active adventure seekers, Xaynor, a private members club, Zardun, an eco-resort featuring three ultra-luxury boutique hotels and many more. With barely 300,000 people living in the futuristic The Line in 2030, it will be up to foreign visitors and tourists to make these neighboring projects a success.
In spite of the sluggishness, 29% of Saudi-based expats would like to buy a home in the $1.5 trillion megacity Neom according to global property consultancy Knight Frank’s inaugural Destination Saudi report. Out of 241 expatriates, 42% were keen on investing in the magnum opus, The Line.
