Plans to build Saudi Arabia’s 170km linear city the Line ‘scaled back’

A rendering of The Line (Image courtesy of NEOM)

Originally envisaged as being home to nine million people and costing $1.5 trillion to build, the city is now expected to reach just 2.4km and house around 300,000 people by 2030.

Bloomberg reported that it had seen documents relating to the scaling back of the Line, which come as the overall 2024 budget for the Neom economic zone in the Kingdom has not yet been approved.

While the project was always set to be built in stages, the current target represents a ‘pull back’ from the original schedule, the report claimed.

The Line is the most ambitious in a welter of megaprojects across Saudi Arabia and among several slated for Neom. According to the original plans, the glass-walled city, just a few hundred metres wide, would occupy an area of 13 square miles and be connected by a high-speed rail line.

But with news that the project is potentially being scaled back, Bloomberg reported that at least one contractor has started to dismiss workers from the project.

17 of Saudi Arabia’s biggest construction megaprojects Saudi Arabia is undergoing transformation at breakneck speed, as the Kingdom aims to reduce its dependence on oil under its Vision 2030 project. International Construction takes a look at 17 of Saudi Arabia’s biggest megaprojects