Riyadh, Jan 11: Saudi Arabia has announced the building of a new project “The Line” in its future city NEOM. The city, a project personally being monitored by the country’s crown prince Mohammad bin Salman, is being built in the country’s northwest on the red sea.
The line will be a 170-km infrastructure project connecting various communities of the city and will blend the region with the surroundings. The project will be such that cars and streets will be not part of the city.
The city is being built as part of the kingdom’s diversification plans as oil as a key resource runs out in the region.
Announcing the project, Mohammad Bin Salman said, “We need to transform the concept of a conventional city into that of a futuristic one. As the Chairman of the Board of Directors of NEOM, I present to you THE LINE. A city of a million residents with a length of 170-km that preserves 95% of nature within NEOM, with zero cars, zero streets, and zero carbon emissions.”
One of the key outcomes of the project is seen as that saves carbon emission as climate change has been a global cause of concern.
The crown prince pointed out, “By 2050, one billion people will have to relocate due to rising CO2 emissions and sea levels.
90% of people breathe polluted air. Why should we sacrifice nature for the sake of development? Why should seven million people die every year because of pollution? Why should we lose one million people every year due to traffic accidents? And why should we accept wasting years of our lives commuting?”
Construction of “The Line” project starts in the first quarter of 2021 and uses artificial intelligence as part of larger sustainability.
The project uses ‘clean energy’ and will make all daily needs–schools, medicines, clinics others within a five-minute reach.
Other countries in the gulf are also diversifying. Notable are countries like Qatar, UAE and others. The diversification process is accompanied by relaxation in conservative rules in many of the gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia.
