NEOM, the US$500 billion megacity project that lies at the centre of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 economic reform, is reportedly set to be significantly scaled back.
A key part of the project is The Line, a futuristic linear city which was designed to be 170km housing 1.5 million people by 2030.
Under the revised plan, as reported by Bloomberg, the city will now hold just 300,000 residents and will be just 2.4km long.
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NEOM is a key project of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and was set to feature street-free cities, a winters sports resort and a high-speed train to connect residents.
The promotional material had mentions of “cognitive cities” and amenities supplied by artificial intelligence.
And in November, NEOM launched the NEOM Investment Fund designed to support the mega-city development.
However, the 2024 budget for the development has yet to be approved by the Public Investment Fund, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, also headed by Mohammed bin Salman.