Saudi Arabia recently unveiled more details of its NEOM project, a project that was first announced nearly 18 months ago. While the world expected something extravagant, no one expected the project to be straight out of a sci-fi dystopian future movie.
The Line is two parallel skyscrapers for over 170 kilometers., 200 meters wide and height of 500 meters high. The outer facade will comprise of mirrors, so when you look at the structure(s) from the desert, it’s just going to look like an extension of the desert. I’d say that’s pretty cool. It looks very much like a movie I’d seen, where there’s a walled city and the citizens are exiled sometimes as punishment. Exile basically means a death sentence, unless you can find your way into a group of rebels that stay out in the desert but have to battle the forces just to stay alive.
Enough of this post-apocalyptic scenario, but if cities take NEOM’s route, I could see something like that happening. I like the idea of NEOM, even though I’m not entirely sure of its viability. The country has a stockpile of cash, it has a stockpile of unused land. It has transformed deserts into fabulous cities before and it could do it again. But this time it would need to ensure the cities are way out of the ordinary. What is even more interesting is that Saudi Arabia, much like almost every other country in the world, needs a surge in its population numbers. Elon Musk is not wrong when he says the earth needs more people to continue to sustain its growth rates. And there are a few countries that need it much more than others.
Controversies surrounding NEOM
As with any major announcement and especially involving Saudi Arabia, NEOM has been surrounded by controversies. One of these controversies is something that is extremely common with any mega-project - the displacement of people, existing towns and townships is just the harsh reality that you have to deal with. And NEOM also has to deal with that, it happens in India, and huge projects get stuck in litigation and court cases for decades. At this point, these projects just become unviable for the developer in most cases. Or in some cases, the increase in realty prices means the developers pump even more finances into these court battles because the light is shining brighter on the other side.
The other controversy is the lack of consistency regarding details about the NEOM project. The NEOM Project has taken on many shapes, including previous iterations that did not include this dystopian - mega project skeleton. So when the details keep changing all the time, what guarantee is there that the NEOM Project, which aims to house nearly 10 million people by 2030, will be a success or even complete at this point in time? It requires a lot of money, nearly $500 bn according to some estimates. There’s also the 100% renewable energy that makes this project extremely exciting, and extremely diversified for Saudi Arabia.
I’m excited to see if NEOM actually goes through and by 2030 if we are going to have a parallel skyscrapers mega-city or whatever it is called.
Everyone knows that these construction projects are just Saudi Arabia thinking ahead of their oil. Once the oil runs out or once the world moves on from oil (which is looking even more probable now after the Russia-Ukraine war).
Saudi Arabia wants to diversify from its new money - the oil-powered money. What's the region done best? Well it's Dubai isn't it?
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