Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveils car-free green city for future beyond oil
- The development will be a 170km-long belt called ‘The Line’, and is part of ‘Neom’, the US$500 billion crown jewel of the kingdom’s diversification effort
- The zero-emissions city will be ‘built around nature’, have no streets, and rely on ‘ultra-high-speed transit and autonomous mobility solutions’
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled his latest vision for Saudi Arabia’s future beyond oil: a city with no cars, roads or carbon emissions.
The 170km-long (106 mile-long) development called “The Line” will be part of the US$500 billion project called “Neom”, the crown prince said in a televised speech on Sunday. Construction is planned to start in the first quarter.
A news release described The Line as a walkable “belt of hyper-connected future communities, without cars and roads and built around nature”.
It said the city would have 1 million residents and create 380,000 jobs by 2030. The infrastructure will cost US$100 billion to US$200 billion, the crown prince said.
Neom is the crown jewel of Prince Mohammed’s plan to diversify the economy of the world’s largest crude exporter. Announced in 2017, the project spans more than 10,000 square miles in a remote area of the country’s northwest. It is described on its website as “a bold and audacious dream” that will become a hub for new technologies and businesses.