Neom: The Line project cut by 104 miles amid Saudi budget concerns - Interesting Engineering (2024)

Saudi Arabia is altering its plans for the ambitious Neom project, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The desert development project is crucial to Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s plans to move Saudi Arabia from its dependence on oil exports. However, the project’s 2024 budget is yet to be approved.

The Neom Project, the plan to transform Saudi Arabia and its economy, is a major development plank envisioned by the Saudi Crown Prince. The ambitious plan covers ten regions, including a floating port city of Oxagon and a ski adventure resort called Trojena.

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However, the most talked about feature of the project has been The Line, a 105-mile (170 km) long linear city. Interesting Engineering has previously reported that the project consists of two parallel-running skyscrapers that will be taller than the Empire State Building when ready. The mirror finish of the building helps them blend into the arid environment, and the entire city is designed to be contained within the two parallel running structures.

Scaling back plans

The scale of Neom’s ambitions was evident in the project’s plans to house up to 1.5 million people in The Line by the end of the decade. The futuristic city aims to be self-sufficient, with facilities for growing food and high-speed transportation contained within the walls.

However, people familiar with the developments have now told Bloomberg that plans for the city are being scaled back, and only a mile and a half (2.4 km) of the city will actually be built by 2030. Sources told the media outlet on the condition of anonymity that the project’s resident capacity has now been scaled down to a mere 300,000.

The plans for the 105-mile-long city are still in place, though, and the project intends to complete it someday. However, it is now expected to happen over a longer time horizon.

The impact of these decisions has been immediately observed, with at least one contractor removing workers from the construction site. The city’s construction only took off with much fanfare last year.

Neom Project stays strong

The estimated cost of the Neom project is about US$1.5 trillion. Funding for the project is largely coming from the Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia’s sovereign fund, which the Crown Prince himself controls.

This scale-back on The Line suggests that the project’s financial realities are catching up, and the fund is looking to deliver on the larger picture of the Vision 2030 project rather than just one city.

Officials told Bloomberg that other aspects of the Neom project will continue as planned. The luxury tourist island of Sindalah is scheduled to open to the public this year, and the plans for the Winter Games to be conducted at Trojena in 2029 are not being shelved.

Mohammed Al Jadaan, Saudi Arabia’s Finance minister, said in December that the country needed to build factories and human resources first, and delays or extensions on some aspects of the project were being made to serve the economy.

The Neom project is also designed to serve as a test bed for new technologies, and the PIF has dedicated more than $8 billion to the construction of solar and wind farms in the region. These will be used to create “green hydrogen,” a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels, as Saudi Arabia looks to move away from its fossil-fuel exports and diversify its economy.