In a rare televised appearance on Sunday, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled ambitious plans for a new carbon-free city at NEOM, in the Kingdom’s northwest along the Red Sea.
The announcement of “The Line,” given personally by the Crown Prince through a video announcement in Arabic with English subtitles, and shared widely on social media, is the first major construction project for the $500 billion flagship business zone aimed at diversifying Saudi Arabia’s economy, Reuters reports. “The Line” would extend over 170 km (105 miles) and be able to house a million residents in “carbon-positive urban developments powered by 100% clean energy.”
Construction of the revolutionary city will preserve 95 per cent of nature within NEOM and will commence in the first quarter of this year.
“The Line” will be home to a million people and have no cars and no streets, according to Arab News.
“We need to transform the concept of a conventional city into that of a futuristic one,” Prince Mohammed said at the launch event. “By 2050, one billion people will have to relocate due to rising CO2 emissions and sea levels. 90 per cent of people breathe polluted air,” the crown prince said.
“Why should we sacrifice nature for the sake of development?” Prince Mohammed said. “We need to transform the concept of a conventional city into that of a futuristic one,” he said, in Arabic, as published by Reuters.
According to a video released about “The Line,” a “spine” of transportation routes will connect the city together, and the vision for the city involves everything one might need within a 5 minute walk.
The Line seeks to preserve nature while developing a futuristic, sustainable home for 1 million residents.
The announcement of “The Line” is the result of three years of planning. According to the same Reuters report, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman later told reporters in the northwestern city of Al-Ula, another tourism destination in development for Saudi Arabia, that infrastructure for “The Line” would cost $100 billion to $200 billion.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is the cornerstone investor in NEOM, a 26,500-square-km (10,230-square-mile) high-tech development on the Red Sea with several zones, including an industrial and logistics areas, planned for completion in 2025.
Construction is set to start in the first quarter of this year.
