The Line: Saudi Arabia’s Futuristic City That Could Redefine Urban Living
A bold vision for sustainable living or an unattainable sci-fi dream? Exploring the promises, challenges, and global implications of NEOM's ambitious mega-project.
Hello friends, a city is going to be built in Saudi Arabia which looks like a part of a science fiction film. It is a futuristic city which is designed in a line 170 km long. This line is 500 meters high i.e. more than the height of the I-T Tower and is only 200 meters wide and on both its sides there are very big mirrors outside. Inside it there will be lush greenery and many futuristic technologies. According to some estimates, the total cost of building it can go up to 1 trillion dollars and Saudi Arabia claims that this city can be ready by 205. Is it really possible? What are the actual advantages and disadvantages of this design and what impact will such a mega project have on the rest of the world? Let's try to find out. Whenever Saudi Arabia is mentioned, two things come to mind first desert and oil. Although it is true that most of the country is surrounded by desert. Typical desert climate is also found in Saudi where the temperature can go up to 45 degrees Celsius during the day and it becomes very cold at night. But apart from this, Saudi is geographically a very diverse country. Here you will also find savanna hills and volcano fields.
In fact, Saudi has more than 2000 dormant volcanoes, many of which are active volcanoes as well. Economically, Saudi is the largest economy in the Middle East and the 18th largest in the world. But it is true that most of this economy is dependent only on oil. Their major The export is petroleum and Saudi Arabia is the world's largest exporter of petroleum. But because countries around the world are trying to end their dependence on oil, Saudi Arabia is very interested in diversifying its economy. Like many other countries in this region, such as the United Arab Emirates, they have also tried very hard to end their dependence on oil. This is the reason why efforts have been made to make Dubai such a big tourism hub. Similarly, Saudi has come up with its own plan, Saudi Vision 2030.
Its aim is to develop the country in other aspects such as health, education, infrastructure, tourism and to increase non-oil exports. A part of this Saudi Vision 2030 plan is to build a smart city of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has announced the plan of building a smart city in Saudi Arabia. A very large area of our country has been earmarked for the development of this Om Smart City. Now Neom is not a smart city in itself, but this name should be used for a region. Within this region, there will be many cities, many resorts and many more developments. The total area of Neom will be around 26500 sq km and its location will be somewhere around here, in the north-western part of Saudi Arabia, north of the Red Sea. This total size is roughly equivalent to half the size of the state of Uttarakhand.
There is also a geographical reason behind choosing this area. The climate here is comparatively moderate. The climate in Saudi Arabia in the middle of the desert is very hot. Here, near the Red Sea, this word Neom means very interesting in itself. Neo is a prefix which comes from ancient Greek which basically means new and M here represents two things, one is the name of their prince Mohammed bin Salman, so M came from Mohammed and the other is an Arabic word, 'Mustaqbil' means to build an ideal city which shows us the new future. According to the developers, there will be 10 different projects inside Neom which are being called 10 different regions. Details of four of these 10 regions have already been announced. The first one is Oxygen, Octagonal E-port which will be made the next generation industrial center of Nim. The second one is Trojana which will be the first major outdoor skiing destination in the Arabian Peninsula. Its opening has been said to be in 2026. Only 3 years later and not only this, this area has already received the bid to host the Asian Winter Games 2029.
It will be located on one of the highest mountain ranges in Saudi and the temperature here actually often goes below 0 degrees Celsius in winters, but still it is said that the snow that will be used here will still be man-made because naturally so much snow does not fall here. The third is Sindh Ala, a luxury resort located outside the complex. About 2400 people will be hosted here. It will be a luxury island spread over 840000 square meters where there will be a lot of things to do and this will be the first part of the Nam project that will open because its opening date is already being told next year, then in 2024. Here comes our fourth and most unbelievable project. People doubted whether it will be built or not. It is just an imagination but at this point of time its construction has already started. So it is a big doubt whether such technologies to build these things exist with us or not. The most special thing about this project is that its design is 170 km long one line. This entire city will be situated between 2 500 meter high sky scrambles. Buildings which are linear The idea behind the concept of the line is not new. Similar ideas were proposed in 1800 and mid 1900 too, however, nobody had the resources and money to actually implement all these things. This city is an example of a concept of 1960 called Arcology. Arcology is architecture plus the words of ecology. This is a field where architecture is used in such a way that we can densely populate a city that causes the least damage to its surrounding environment. This is the reason behind the concept of the line that why should this city be built in a line so that whatever natural landscape is around is affected as little as possible. Some real life examples inspired by the principles of this arcology still exist such as the research stations in Antarctica where thousands of people can live and work and remain isolated from the outside environment so that there is no damage to the outside environment and it is completely self-sufficient. The Line project will also try to do the same because its width will be only 200 meters, which means 170 km by 200 meters, its area is only 34 square meters and according to its developers, 9 million people will live here.
This is the population of New York City but the area is about 20 times smaller than the area of New York City, so the overall footprint is very small. Multiple layers have been planned inside this city. If seen vertically, so that people can move in three dimensions, up, down and sideways and this new concept they have named Zero Gravity Urbanism. On top of that, their developers claim that Neom will be powered by 100% renewable energy Solar wind and hydrogen will be used as base power generation for transportation inside it, there will be no roads, no vehicles instead there will be places for people to walk where there will be parks, green spaces and because this is a 170 km long line, high speed transportation will be used to connect the line end to end. The design inside will be in such a way that everything is available at a 5-minute walking distance, residents have access to all their daily needs within five minute walk neighbourhoods, climate control will also be done inside, so that these a consistent climate can be maintained even if it is very hot outside and because this line will go from one end to the sea till the Red Sea, it is also said to have a huge potential for trading because 13% of the world's trade actually passes through the Swiss Canal and on top of that a Niamey Bay airport will be built near it whose location will be such that 40% of the world's things will be just 6 hours away from it. This is because Saudi Arabia's location in itself is such that it becomes the central point for Europe, Asia, Africa. Then its developers claim that artificial intelligence will be seamlessly integrated into the line. Systems will be created here for both personal and commercial life. The data will be collected, analyzed and catered to everyone personally. What exactly can this mean? It is very difficult to guess but this can be a big dystopian thing as well. Wherever you go in this smart city, wherever you go, you will be tracked and on that basis you will be sold ads or products. This is a very big danger point of such futuristic cities. If we understand the dark side of The Line Project, why it may never be possible. The first and the biggest challenge in completing this Line Project will be of money. This project is being financed by Saudi Arabia's Sovereign Wealth Private Investment Fund. Its name is Public Investment Fund. This is basically a fund created by the government of their country which has a lot of money. No doubt it is estimated that 620 billion dollars worth of money is in this fund. But there are two problems here.
First, this fund's money is Saudi Arabian. Arabia depends a lot on the economy which is based on oil, the price of oil can fluctuate a lot in the market, like in 2020, Riyadh saw a fiscal deficit of $9 billion dollars and this is a country where 60% of the resources are directly related to oil, in 2021 only 9% of their exports were non-oil exports, so if money will come from here to build such a big project, then this is very volatile money don't know how low this money will fall in the future, but the other problem is that even if all the 600 billion dollars of this fund is invested in this project, it will not be enough, the initial plan was to complete. NEOM by the year 2030 and for this 500 billion dollars were allocated. There were some reports that this thing may not be completed even by the year 2050 and because of that the costs will increase even more.
Due to this, the cost of the estimator project can be $ trillion dollars. Now their fund does not even have trillion dollars, so they will need more investors from foreign countries and through research we have come to know that some discussions have taken place in these There are some Russian companies along with foreign companies, but Saudi Arabia has not been successful in attracting more and less foreign investment.
The second big problem with this project is related to technology. If a project like this line is to be made in reality, then many such technologies will be used here which do not exist in reality. Like their transportation system, their developers said that there will be a high speed transportation network. They did not say whether it will be a train or a metro. But they say that in this 170 km line, it will take only 20 minutes to reach from one end to the other. This system will be designed in such a way that it will take only 20 minutes to reach from end to end in 20 minutes. This means that its traveling speed will be more than 500 km per hour. And today, friends, no such technology exists which The fastest train in the world that can give us such a high speed is Shanghai's Mag Lev train, whose top speed is around 430 km per hour. It is true that in 2015 a Japanese Mag Lev train broke the record of top speed. In a test run, a speed of 603 km per hour was also achieved, but that was a test run. In regular operations, we have not been able to reach an average speed of more than 430 km per hour. No one has ever made such 500 meter high mirrors. It is theoretically possible, but practically no one knows whether it will be challenging to make them, especially if they go 170 km in one direction. Their purpose has also not been made clear yet. Looking at them, it seems that they have been installed only for aesthetics. Just because the project will look very futuristic and good, glass has been installed on its outside. It has no practical use. Similarly, there are many things in this project that have never been tried till date. No one knows whether it will be possible practically or not. The third point is about the environment. However, they have claimed that it will have minimal impact on the environment. That is why it is being built in a straight line. But what impact will installing glass on the outside have on animal movement? It can be very dangerous for migratory birds. Also, making a continuous wall in which there is no space to go from here to there will also interfere a lot with the crossing of land animals. On top of this, many people have criticized this thing. The project claims to be very sustainable and has zero carbon emissions, but building two 500-meter tall buildings covered in glass and extending so far is next to impossible. It is using low carbon materials to achieve all this, says new DGP Professor Philip Oldfield. It will take a phenomenal amount of steel, glass and concrete to build the line alone. 1.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide will be released.
The entire UK emits more carbon emissions in 4 years. This is equivalent to its environmental impact. The rule was also criticized in October 2022 when it won the hosting rights for the 2029 Asian Winter Games. What was the point of hosting the Winter Games in a country where skiing is a popular sport? That no place exists naturally. All something will be created in an artificial environment. How much impact will it have on energy and local water resources. Then there are architectural problems. This line design is true that it will save a lot of area but in many ways it will also inferiority. For example, in the transportation system, if the whole city is living in a straight line and there is only one route of transportation to take them from here to there, all the 9 million people who will live in this one city will be dependent on this one route. It means that if a problem occurs anywhere in this entire 170 km route, then the transportation of the whole city will be delayed. Such a single point of failure can be very dangerous for such a design. And finally, the last problem that arises is of the people.
If all the different challenges are overcome, Even if we do it, we should find some way to deal with all these problems. The last question that will arise here is whether people will want to live in it. Imagine spending 2400 hours in a city where you are totally cut off from the outside environment. You always start living inside an artificial building like environment. If you want to go out to enjoy the open air, you will not find anything outside. As soon as you go out, you will look back and you will see only a mirror as far as the eye can see. Whenever you stay inside, you will be constantly monitored by the government. You will be constantly tracked. It sounds less like a livable city and more like a science fiction dystopia. What is your opinion here? Would you like to live in such a city? Write in the comments below. Tell me in my opinion that this is Line's dream project coming soon. In time this will remain a dream only. There are more chances of this happening. Why am I saying this because before this Saudi Arabia had also tried to build the world's tallest building. Its construction had also started. The third building was also completed. But then it was cancelled. What is the reason that so many problems are being faced in building a building taller than Burj Khalifa? I will explain this thing in detail in the next post. If you liked this post, kindly share this post. Thank you very much.