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Robert Browning may have waxed lyrical about how a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, but despite the wonderful AI images and deep oil-pockets, the Suadi Arabian mega-city project, The Line, has now been forced to scale back a bit. And by a bit, we mean a lot.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s project, envisioned as a 170-kilometre-long city of the future, is now expected to only reach 2.4 kilometres by 2030. That’s like reaching for the moon and ending up at the local KFC.

Dreamed up as a linear city that would eventually be home to about 9 million people, the Line is part of a wider Neom project. Now at least one contractor has begun dismissing workers, according to Bloomberg, which said it had seen documents relating to the project.

The project, estimated to cost $1.5 trillion (R28 trillion), was marketed as a ‘revolution of urban planning’. However, it has long been met with scepticism and condemnation, particularly following the reported killing of many members of the Howeitat tribe who challenged plans to build on their ancient territory.

Then there were stories of Prince Mohammed’s ever-changing vision for the project, financial overruns, and a rotating roster of key personnel, with some who worked on it describing it as “untethered from reality”.

“To watch the crown prince’s promotional video is to be immersed in a distinctively Saudi form of arrogance, blending religious triumphalism and royal grandiosity.”

According to Bloomberg, the scaling back of the Line comes as the overall Neom budget for 2024 has yet to be approved by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund amid declining cash reserves.

Promotional presentations had suggested something out of a science fiction novel running inland into Tabuk province from the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba where it enters the Red Sea.

 

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A few hundred metres wide, the linear city had been sold as the future of accessible urban planning, with amenities for residents within close walking distance to accommodation and districts connected by one of the world’s fastest trains.

Prince Mohammed described the city project as “tackling the challenges facing humanity in urban life today” to “shine a light on alternative ways to live”. With the ‘revised’ plans, you would only need a decent torch to light the alternative way to live. The Line forms part of the Neaom project, which we wrote about last year.

Bummer. It would have been great to see the Prince draw a city-sized line in the sand. Now it’s likely to simply resemble a Russian apartment block.

[source:guardian]