By Davidson Abraham
Sundiata Post – In Neom, The Line was expected to house 1.5 million by 2030
Now, fewer than 300,000 are expected to live there by then
Saudi Arabia has scaled back its medium-term ambitions for the desert development of Neom, the biggest project within Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plans for diversifying the oil dependent economy, according to people familiar with the matter.
By 2030, the government at one point hoped to have 1.5 million residents living in The Line, a sprawling, futuristic city it plans to contain within a pair of mirror-clad skyscrapers. Now, officials expect the development will house fewer than 300,000 residents by that time, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Officials have long said The Line would be built in stages and they expect it to ultimately cover a 170 Kilometer stretch of desert along the coast. With the latest pullback, though, officials expect to have just 2.4 kilometers of the project completed by 2030. As a result, at least one contractor has started to dismiss a portion of the workers it employed for the project.
Crown Prince Mohammed intends for Neom, a $1.5 trillion development on the Red Sea coast, to be a showpiece that will transform his country’s economy and serve as a testbed for technologies that could revolutionize daily life. Along with The Line, Neom’s plans include an industrial city, ports and tourism developments. It’s also set to host the Asian Winter Games in 2029 at a mountain resort called Trojena.
To be sure, work is continuing on other parts of the broader Neom project and officials have maintained their overall objectives for The Line, people familiar with the matter said. For instance, another development within Neom that is turning an island in the Red Sea into a luxury tourism destination known as Sindalah is due to open this year.
