The future has not arrived yet. Or, at least, not the one imagined by the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman. Four years ago, the kingdom’s de facto ruler announced another pharaonic project: a ultrafuturistic linear city which would extend 170 kilometers across the desert. He called her The Line (The Line), and it had to be a model of how humanity would live in the future. Billions of dollars invested later, the jewel in the crown also known as MBS barely extends a couple of kilometers above the sand. Furthermore, the project is followed by a trail of controversies and violations of human rights As in many proposals of its Vision 2030, the plan to transform the economy so that the kingdom goes from being one of the most closed countries in the world to one of the most modern, with a diversified economy, cutting-edge infrastructure, futuristic cities, open to tourism and foreign capital.
The Line has cost so far 50 billion dollars. In the desert, there are only a series of metal pillars driven into the sand and deep trenches cutting through the terrain. Along 170 kilometers, a city just 200 meters wide and 500 meters high was going to be built that would house a population of nine million peoplemore than a quarter of the population of Saudi Arabia. As icing on the cake, MBS envisioned a five-runway airport, a floating soccer stadium, and a huge man-made marina. “As thought experiment“I think it’s great, but don’t build thought experiments,” said a urban planner expert who works in the country Financial Times (FT).
Eviction of ancestral villages
A month ago, this British newspaper revealed the project failure based on twenty interviews with people involved. The Line is part of Neoman urban megaproject in the northwest province of Tabukwhich also had to feature a desert ski resort, a floating industrial complex and a super-luxury tourist resort. For now, there are not enough funds to carry out the city that was supposed to be ecological and car-free, although Saudi activists have denounced the multiple environmental problems that had its design. With initial costs skyrocketing, there are fewer and fewer foreign investors interested in giving money to a project that, on the ground, has made little progress.
This is what the city of The Line should be like. / EPC
Right now, the works are paralyzedalthough there is no official cancellation. A person familiar with the project told the FT that efforts are now focused on complete some small buildings around the marina. But the impact it has left on the ground already seems irreversible. “Beyond the occupational risks with the personnel who are working on the construction site, there have been human rights violations, such as the forced evictions of several ancestral villages,” through whose towns The Line had to pass, notes Carlos de las Herasresponsible for Europe and the Middle East and Sports and Human Rights at Amnesty International. “Some were evicted from their homes at gunpoint and there are people who have been sentenced to 50 years in prison for refusing to leave their homes,” he tells this newspaper.
It would deplete world supplies
The word ambitious falls short of describing The Line. The completely linear city would work with clean energy and without a single car. A wall 500 meters high, Taller than the Empire Statewould reflect the desert landscape, which environmental activists denounced would cause the death of millions of birds who migrate every year from Europe to Asia. The central element of the project was a hidden marina carved into the desert. Suspended above its lofty doorway, a 30-story glass and steel building was designed in the shape of a chandelier. The laws of physics have ruled out this part. Under the marina, there would be a train station high speed lightwhich would connect the 170 kilometers of the city, along with buses and driverless modules.
“The working conditions of migrant workers are very dangerous, with days of up to 16 hours a day, in some cases without days off and in very precarious conditions”
Also, above the chandelier, there had to be a soccer stadium with capacity for 45.000 personas350 meters above sea level, ready for the 2034 Saudi Arabia World Cup. Neom International Airport would be located to the east of the line, and would have five runways, one dedicated to supersonic aircraft, and could accommodate up to 100 million passengers annuallybut the construction of this airfield has already been suspended indefinitely.
The magnitude of the project has not only exhausted funds prematurely, but the amount of materials needed to build it would end up collapsing supply chains of metals, concrete and stoneincreasing the prices of materials. A former employee who worked on the construction of The Line told the FT that to make concrete for the first 20 modules, contractors would need a supply of cement each year that would be greater than the annual production of France.
Conditions of migrant workers
After overcoming the initial euphoria due to the size of the project, doubts began to arise, such as, for example, where the nine million people who had to populate it would come from, and the impact of its construction worldwide. In turn, difficulties arose immediately and so did things as simple as water, sewage, mail or garbage collection. But the works continued until recently. “In addition, the working conditions are very dangerous, with days of up to 16 hours a dayin some cases without days off and in very precarious conditions,” denounces De Las Heras.
“The most impressive progress they have made is diversifying their economy away from hydrocarbons in a relatively short period, and what is truly extraordinary is that many of these industries and economies look futuristic.”
“The large-scale projects that the kingdom has launched will require capital and investmentand if they do not have the fiscal cushion to allocate internal capital to these projects, they will have to assume more external debt,” he suggests. Khalid Azimdirector of the Futures Laboratory of the Near East and North Africa region at the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East of the Atlantic Council. Although The Line has fallen behind, this 2026 the Saudi kingdom celebrates the tenth anniversary of its Vision 2030. “The most impressive progress they have made is diversify your economy beyond hydrocarbons in a relatively short period, and what is truly extraordinary is that many of these industries and economies have a futuristic look“Azim concludes to EL PERIÓDICO.
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