Saudi Arabia has been forced to scale back its $1.5trillion plans for a 106-mile linear desert megacity, according to reports, in a humiliating climb down for the kingdom.
The Line – part of the country’s audacious and futuristic NEOM project – 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.
Now, according to people familiar with the project, the development will only stretch 1.5 miles and house fewer than 300,000 residents by 2030, according to a new report from Bloomberg citing sources close to the project and documents.
As a result of the reduction to the construction of The Line, at least one contractor has started dismissing workers it employs on the site, the publication has said.
Stunning concept images released by the kingdom in 2022 showed a vast, mirrored structure cutting through the desert near crystal blue ocean waters.
Saudi Arabia has been forced to scale back its $1.5trillion plans for a 106-mile linear desert city (pictured in concept images), according to reports, in a humiliating decision for the kingdom
The Line – part of the country’s audacious and futuristic NEOM project – was meant to be 106 mile sin length and home to 1.5 million residents by the end of the decade. According to Bloomberg, the plans have been scaled back, with The Line now set to be just 1.5 miles
The Line is seen in a concept video released by Saudi Arabia, showing the two vast structures stretching off into the distance
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
It is one of fifteen developments that form the country’s NEOM project – which also includes an industrial city, ports and tourism developments – that have been gradually announced by the kingdom since 2021.
READ MORE: Saudi Arabia announces latest audacious NEOM destination: ‘Elevated haven’ Treyam resort will feature world’s longest sky pool on roof of 250-room resort
But The Line was the jewel in Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ‘Vision 2030’ project, which was set in motion to diversify his country’s oil dependent economy, as well as its society and culture, and improve the image it projects on the world stage.
The Kingdom said the project, which is expected to cost $1.5 trillion, would be an ‘unprecedented living experience’ that preserves ‘surrounding nature’.
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.
However, Bloomberg reports that these plans have now been dramatically scaled back – with the 106 mile structure being reduced to just 1.5 miles – a more than 98 percent decrease in size.
It is not clear whether The Line will still feature its twin skyscrapers seen in the concept imagery, or if the whole project will have to be reconsidered, now that its size has been reduced.
Citing its sources, Bloomberg reports that Saudi Arabia has not yet approved NEOM’s 2024 budget, and that its vast expenditure is beginning to concern officials.
Some projects outlined in the Vision 2030 are already expected to be delayed past the end of the decade, with Finance Minister Mohammed Al Jadaan saying in December that longer is needed to build ‘factories’ and ‘sufficient human resources.’
‘The delay or rather the extension of some projects will serve the economy,’ he said.
NEOM was first announced in 2017, with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (pictured) delivering a presentation on The Line in July 2022
Pictured: Construction workers are seen operating excavators in drone footage captured in 2022 when The Line project began
The huge trench can be seen going 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
NEOM was first announced in 2017, with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman delivering a presentation on The Line in July 2021 – capturing the attention of both city planner, architects and the general public around the world.
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 two mirrored structures – each rising 500 feet above sea level, taller than the Empire State building – that would stretch out across the desert.
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.
Analysts noted at the time, though, that plans for NEOM have changed course over the years, fuelling doubts about whether The Line will ever become reality.
It was once touted as a regional ‘Silicon Valley’, a biotech and digital hub spread over 10,000 square miles.
Pictured: Concept art showing the inside of Saudi Arabia’s The Line megacity
At just 200 yards wide, The Line is 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’
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
The futuristic megacity in Saudi Arabia was set to feature two massive, mirror-encased skyscrapers that extend over desert and mountain terrain
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’.
The site will 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.
‘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.
Unsurprisingly, The Line – and NEOM in general – has consistently raised eyebrows for proposed flourishes like flying taxis and robot maids, with architects and economists questioning its feasibility.
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.
‘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.
Residents of the project were set to 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’
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
Salman is hoping to great a desert community known as Neom (pictured in concept imagery)
The feasibility of the project had long been called into question.
Architect and urban planner Etienne Bou-Abdo said of the 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’.
A number of The Line’s key features, particularly those related to energy and transport, are based on technologies that do not exist even in prototype form.
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 for millions of birds migrating between Europe and Africa each year.
As Saudi Arabia touted the finished projects 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-kilometer 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, 988million 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.