Hello, friends!
A city is going to be built in Saudi Arabia which looks like a part of a science fiction film. A futuristic city which is designed in a line.
A
170 km long line. This line is
500 meters tall, taller than the Eiffel Tower. It is
only 200 m wide and on both sides of it, there are
huge mirror panels on the exterior. It will have
greenery and a lot of futuristic technologies. According to some estimates, the total
cost of making it can reach up to 1 trillion dollars. And Saudi Arabia claims that by 2045, the city can be ready. Is it really possible?
What are the benefits and disadvantages of this design? And what impact will such a mega project have on the rest of the world?
Come, let's try to find out in this article. 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 deserts. A typical desert climate is also seen in Saudi Arabia, where
the temperature can reach up to 45°C during the day and gets very cold at night. But apart from this, Saudi is a very diverse country geographically. Here you will find
savannas, mountains and volcanic fields too. In fact, there
are more than 2000 dormant volcanoes in Saudi Arabia. Many of them are active volcanoes. Economically,
Saudi is the largest economy in the Middle East and the 18th largest in the world. But it is true that this
economy is mostly dependent on oil. Their
major export is petroleum and Saudi Arabia is the world's largest exporter of petroleum. But because the entire world wants to end its
dependence on oil, Saudi is very interested in diversifying its economy. Like many other countries in this region
, Such as the United Arab Emirates, which
tried a lot to end their dependence on oil. This is
the reason why Dubai has been made such a big tourism hub. Similarly, Saudi has introduced its plan, Saudi Vision 2030.
Its aim is to develop the country in other aspects, like
health, education, infrastructure, tourism and non-oil exports. One part of this Saudi Vision 2030 plan is to build the NEOM smart city. Saudi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman dedicated a large part of the country towards the development of this NEOM Smart City. NEOM is not a single smart city. In fact, this name should be used for a region.
There will be many cities, resorts and other developments in this region. In total, the area of NEOM will be around 26,500 km².
And its location will be somewhere here.
In the
northwestern part of Saudi Arabia, in the north of the Red Sea. This
total size is roughly equivalent to half the size of the state of Uttarakhand. There is a geographical reason behind choosing this area. The
climate here is comparatively moderate. In Saudi Arabia, the climate in the middle of the desert is hotter. Here, it will be near the Red Sea. The word NEOM is very interesting in itself.
It is made up of Neo plus M. Neo is a prefix that comes from Ancient Greek. It basically means New. And M here represents two things.
One is the name of the prince himself. Mohammed bin Salman. So, M comes from Mohammad. And the
second is an Arabic word, Mustaqbal. The first letter of this is also M. And this word means Future. They want to make an ideal city that shows us a new future.
According to the developers, NEOM will have 10 different projects which are called 10 different regions. The details of 4 of these 10 regions have already been announced.
The First is the OXAGON,
an
octagon-shaped floating port. It will be the next-generation industrial centre of NEOM. The
Second is TROJENA,
which is the first major outdoor skiing destination of the Arabian Peninsula. It is
planned to be inaugurated in 2026 in 3 years from now. Not only that, this area has already won the bid To host the Asian Winter Games in 2029. This will be located on one of the highest mountain ranges in Saudi Arabia.
Where the
temperature actually goes down to 0°C in the winter. But
still, it is said that the snow used here will be man-made. Because
naturally, it doesn't snow that much here. Third is SINDALAH,
a luxury resort complex located outside the city coast. Around 2,400 people can be hosted here. This will be a
luxury island spread over 840,000 m² with a
lot of things to do. It will be the first part of the NEOM project to be open to the public as its opening
date was announced to be next year, in 2024. Then comes our fourth and most unbelievable project, The Line.
The Line was announced on 10th January 2021 and a lot of people had doubts on whether or not it would be built. If it was just a figment of the imagination. But at this point in time, its construction has already started. Even though, there were considerable doubts about whether the technologies to make it happen exists or not. The most important thing about this project is its design. A 170 km long line. This whole city will be situated between two 500-metre-tall skyscrapers. These buildings will be linear and placed parallelly in line with each other and will have mirrors on the external facade. The idea in itself is not new. Similar ideas were proposed in the 1800s and mid-1900s. Although, no one had the resources or the money to implement this idea. This city is an example of a concept of the 1960s, which is called Arcology.
Arcology is made up of the words Architecture and Ecology.
This is a field where architecture is used in such a way that we can build densely populated areas in cities in the most efficient way. A city that can cause the least damage to its surrounding environment. This is the reason behind the concept of The Line. About why should we build this city in a line. So that the surrounding natural landscape have to bear the least bit of damage. Some real-life examples inspired by the principles of Arcology are the research stations in Antarctica.
Such research stations where thousands of people can live and work. And they are insulated from the outside environment. So that no damage is done to the external 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. 170 km x 200 meters.
Its
area is only 34 km². And according to its developers,
9 million people will live here. The
population of New York City. Living in 1/20th the size of the area of New York City. So the overall footprint becomes very small. Multiple layers have been planned inside this city, when looking at it vertically,
so that
people can move in three dimensions. Up, down, and sideways, And this new concept has been named Zero Gravity Urbanism. On top of that, their developers claim that NEOM will be powered with 100% renewable energy.
Solar, wind, and
hydrogen-based power generation will be used. In this,
for transportation, there will be no roads or cars. Instead,
there will be places for people to walk, parks and green spaces. And
since it is a 170 km long line, high-speed transportation will be used to connect the Line from end to end. The interior
will be designed in a way that everything will be available within a 5-minute walking distance. “Residents have access to all their daily needs within 5-minute walk neighbourhoods.”
The climate will also be controlled to maintain a consistent climate even through the scorching heat outside.
And because This Line will go from one end to the Red Sea,
it is also considered to
have great potential for trading because 13% of the world's trade actually happens through the Suez Canal. On top of that,
a
NEOM Bay airport will be built near it, whose location
will be such that 4
0% of the world and everything in it will be only 6 hours away from it. This is because
Saudi Arabia's location makes it a central point of Europe, Asia, and Africa. The
developers also claim that artificial intelligence will be seamlessly integrated into The Line. In
both personal and commercial life. Systems will be made to
gather data, analyze it and cater to everyone’s personal needs. What would this mean exactly?
It is difficult to guess, but it can also be largely dystopian. Wherever you go in this smart city, you will be tracked and based on that, ads or products will be sold to you. This is a big danger point of such futuristic cities. and understand the dark side of the Line project. Why this may never be possible. The first and biggest challenge in completing this Line project will be money.
This project is being financed by Saudi Arabia's
Sovereign Wealth Private Investment Fund. Known as the Public Investment Fund. It is basically a fund created by the government of Saudi Arabia, which has a lot of money. No doubt. The fund is
estimated to have $620 billion worth of money. But there are two problems here.
First, the money in this fund depends heavily on the Saudi economy, which is based on oil. The price of oil can fluctuate in the market. For example, in 2020, Riyadh saw a fiscal deficit of $79 billion. And this is a country where 60% of resources are directly related to oil. In 2021, only 9% of their exports were non-oil exports. So, if money to build such a big project, is coming out of such a fund, then it is very volatile. We don't know how much money will depreciate in the future. But the second problem is that even if the entire $600 billion of this fund is invested in this project, it will still not be enough. The initial plan was to complete NEOM by 2030 and $500 billion was allocated for it. Some reports say that it cannot be completed by 2050 and because of that, the costs will increase even more. For this reason, it has been estimated that the cost of this project can be as much as $1 trillion. Now, they do not have $1 trillion in their fund so other investors will be needed from other countries. And from research, we have found that there have been some discussions with foreign companies, with some Russian companies, but more or less, Saudi Arabia has not been successful in attracting foreign investment for this project.
The second big problem is the technology. If a project like Line is to be made a reality, then many technologies will need to be used that do not really exist yet. For example, their transportation system. Their developers said that there will be a high-speed transportation network. They did not say whether there will be a train or a metro. But they said that in this 170 km line, this system will take only 20 minutes to travel from one end to the other end. “And The Line's infrastructure makes it possible to travel end to end in 20 minutes.” This means that the speed of its travel will be more than 500 km/h. And today, there is no technology with which we can travel at such high speeds. Currently, the fastest train in the world is the Shanghai Maglev train
whose top
speed is around 430 km/h. It is true that in
2015, a Japanese Maglev train broke the top speed record. In a test run, it achieved a speed of 603 km/h. But
that was a test run. In
regular operations, we have still not been able to exceed the average speed of 430 km/h. Similarly,
no one has ever made 500-meter-high mirrors. It is
theoretically possible, but
practically no one knows what challenges will arise while making such high mirrors. Especially if
they go 170 km in one direction. Their purpose is also not clear. For now,
it seems that they have been installed only for aesthetics. To make the project can look futuristic and beautiful, the
mirrors are planned to be installed outside. Its practical use has not been announced yet. Similarly, there are many things in this project that have never been done before. No one knows whether it will be practically possible or not.
The third point is about the environment. Although they have claimed that it will have minimal impact on the environment, that's why it is being made in a straight line,
but how will it impact animal movement by putting a mirror on the exterior?
It can also be very dangerous for migratory birds. Along with that, making a continuous wall without any space to cross from one side to the other will interfere a lot with the crossing of land animals. On top of that, many people have criticized this project, which is projected as being very sustainable with zero carbon emissions. But building two 500-meter tall buildings covered with glass which are so long, building them with low-carbon materials is next to impossible. UNSW's Professor Philip Oldfield
says that to
achieve all this, a phenomenal quantity of steel, glass, and
concrete will be required. And only for
making this Line, 1.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide will be released. Almost
equivalent to the UK’s carbon emissions for 4 years. Because of its
environmental impact, NEOM was criticised in October 2022 when it won hosting rights for the Asian Winter Games in 2029. What is the point of hosting the Winter Games in a country without a natural place for skiing?
Everything will need to be created in an artificial environment.
How much impact will it have on energy and local water resources?
Then comes the architectural problems. Undoubtedly, the design of The Line will save a lot of space. But in many ways, this will increase the inefficiency too. Like in the transportation system. If the whole city is living in a straight line, and there is only one transportation route to go from one place to another, all 9 million people who will live in this city will be dependent on this one route. This means that if there is a problem anywhere in this entire 170 km route, then the entire city's transport will be delayed. Such a single point of failure can be very dangerous for such a design.
And finally, the last problem is of the people. If all these different challenges are overcome, if a way is found to deal with all these problems, the last question that will arise here is,
Will people want to live here?
Imagine spending 24 hours in a city where you are totally cut off from the outside environment. You are living in an artificial building. If you want to go out and enjoy the open air, you won't find anything. As soon as you step out and turn around the only thing you can see will be a mirror. And when you are inside, you will be constantly surveilled by the government. You will be tracked constantly. This sounds like a less habitable city and more like a science fiction dystopia.
What is your opinion? Would you like to live in such a city?
Write in the comments below. In my opinion, this dream project of The Line will likely remain a dream even in the future. There's a high chance of that. 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. One-third of the building was built, but it was later abandoned. What is the reason that building buildings taller than the Burj Khalifa proves to be so difficult? I have explained this in detail in this article. You can click here to watch it. https://latestaroundour.blogspot.com/2023/06/Mystery-of-Burj-Khalifa.html If you liked this article, you will definitely like that too.
Thank you very much!
