The Line, which is at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s mega-project Neom, is a $500bn eco-region–part of Saudi Vision 2030 strategy aimed to diversify the kingdom’s economy away from oil. The futuristic desert city is being built by dozens of Western companies–several of them are British.
The Line–Neom’s flagship project–has been pitched as a car-free, carbon-free city, just 656ft wide and 106 miles long – though only 2.4km of the project is reportedly expected to be completed by 2030, according to Bloomberg.
Once complete, travel along The Line will be via hyper-speed trains, with the longest journey “never more than 20 minutes”, the developers claim.
About Neom: The area where Neom is being built has been described as the perfect “blank canvas” by Saudi leader Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman. Glow-in-the dark beaches. Billions of trees planted in a country dominated by the desert. Levitating trains. A fake moon are some of the plans for Neom–it is part of Saudi Arabia’s pivot to go green. The ecocity is expected to be a “blueprint for tomorrow in which humanity progresses without compromise to the health of the planet”.
Covering a total area of over 10,230 sq-miles – larger than Kuwait or Israel – Neom will exist entirely outside the confines of the current Saudi judicial system, governed by an autonomous legal system that will be drafted up by investors.
What’s more, Neom will be home to Oxagon, a city floating on water spanning 4.3 miles – making it the largest floating structure in the world.
Sourced and aggregated from 2 BBC reports on The Line and Neom:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68945445
https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-59601335
