IMAGE SOURCE: INTERESTING ENGINEERING

LINE CITY

 Line City is part of a $500 billion development project called NEOM. It lives up to its name and stretches over 170 kilometers straight through the province of Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia. The Saudi government trumpets the above 106-mile development strip, planned city of NEOM in north-western Saudi Arabia, as undeveloped but in fact, 20,000 members of the Kuwaiti tribe (also known as Howeitat) live there, protesting the eviction of the planned mega-city, according to The Guardian. 

In January 2021, the crown prince announced that a carbon-free city called The Line would be built as part of the project. Construction of the line is estimated to cost $100-200 billion, which will be deducted from the $500 billion that the Saudi government and international investors have committed to NEOM, with a population of one million expected by 2030. The crown prince called it a "plan of civilization" that "puts people first.". 

The line promotes itself as a "five-minute city" for those who need a five-minute walk but locally the words "realistic walking in the middle of the desert" resonate, challenging the 15-minute city concept being implemented in real cities around the world such as Paris and doing something to make our cities fairer, more affordable and more sustainable. A carbon-free city called The Line is a carefully designed linear city of one million inhabitants, 170 kilometers wide and accessible in five minutes. Despite the shrill announcement, the Line is a technology city that doesn't yet exist, and building a massive new city from scratch is fraught with challenges. 

The line is a revolution in urban life, developed as part of the NEOM, a proposed $500 billion cross-border city in the province of Tabuk in north-western Saudi Arabia, which will feature smart technologies. According to NDTV, the 106-mile straight line will one day house a million people and be part of a larger project called NEOM, which is located on the Red Sea. The Line is part of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is happy to announce that the preach of linear cities like NEOM - artificial cities in the middle of the desert with robot dinosaurs and artificial moons - is at this point an existing 2,300-page dream of a white label consulting firm that he can accomplish for a penny. 

The line is the first major construction project in NEOM, a 26,500-square-kilometer high-tech business and logistics zone. NEOM is a key component of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's vision 2030 master plan to steer the Saudi economy away from oil and natural gas to sustainable, private sector-driven industries. Once established, the $500 billion zone will house a port facility, a solar park, a sports stadium and a tourist resort. In the video released, Mohammed bin Salman said: 'For the first time in 150 years, the Line City is a major urban development designed for people, not streets. The city will have no cars on the streets, and its inhabitants must be within a five-minute walk. 

Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and Chairman of NEOM Board of Directors announced plans to build a 170-kilometer linear city in nature without cars and roads. Developers predict the line will be a new master plan for cities in Saudi Arabia. The goal is to build a futuristic, car-free, carbon-free city with a million inhabitants on the coast of the Red Sea that begins and follows a narrow 170-kilometer line through rugged mountains. 

A view of the coast of Neom in northwestern Saudi Arabia, where the government is planning a new linear town. On 10 January, Saudi Arabia released "The Line" with a shrill keynote address led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. A 170-kilometer car-free city will span over 10,000 square miles of the city of Neom. The 100-mile belt of energy-free, walkable communities of millions of people will consist of connected communities that it calls "urban modules" that connect the Red Sea Coast to Northwestern Saudi Arabia. 

Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, is planned as an ideal city in the form of an airplane, with government buildings along the fuselage. From the polluting metropolises of today's green oases and deserts to futuristic cities without cars, the roads will have no net carbon dioxide emissions that are 100% clean, and residents will be diverted by autonomous mobility solutions and ultra-fast transit connections. Housing, nature, supermarkets, and jobs are the vision and cornerstone of a future city of millions called The Line. 



Until January, when the new city authorities announced that the line would be a series of settlements connected by a vast underground transportation system, few concrete details were known. It would be a "place for dreamers," Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said, adding that it would be powered by artificial intelligence and funded by the Kingdom's sovereign wealth fund. The line would be 100 percent clean, making the city environmentally friendly, healthy, and sustainable. 

Neom was announced in 2017 as part of the 2030 vision of Saudi Arabia to create public services and diversity as the Saudi economy becomes increasingly dependent on oil. The plans for six new economic cities - with the same lofty goals as Neom - to diversify the economy, attract foreign investment, and create jobs for young Saudis are ambitious but modest by comparison. The current smart city of Songdo in South Korea, which uses data from sensors in the Internet of Things, for example, to warn people when their buses approach to prevent water waste, is very close to what Neom is planning.