The prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman has announced a city with no cars, no streets and no carbon emission. The Saudi Arabian prince on Sunday gave a very strong and a visionary speech on revolutionizing the urban living with THE LINE project which is a part of the NEOM project. THE LINE is a 170km long project located in NEOM, linking the coast of the Red Sea with the mountains and upper valleys of the north-west of Saudi Arabia with no cars, no streets and zero carbon emissions and where everything will be a walk of 5mins!! But there is a lot of confusion, how is it possible to build a city without roads and how can people travel long distances without vehicle? How will it affect the everyday life of people? How much would it cost to build a city like that? What impacts would this project have on Saudi Arabia’s economy? Let’s find out at Truly Global.
How can you create a city without road and cars?
The people working on the infrastructure for THE LINE say that the communities will be powered by various types of renewable energy, built around people, easily accessible. Essential services and amenities will be accessible within a five minute walk. Infrastructure and supporting services - including transportation, utilities, digital infrastructure, and logistics - will be seamlessly integrated in dedicated spaces running in an invisible layer along THE LINE and with high speed transportation long commute will be a thing of the past.
How will it affect the everyday life of people?
THE LINE is believed to revitalize urban living by reintroducing walking and creating a sense of community by having nature, business and innovation powered by renewable energy. The idea of whole industry being built on the nature defines the relationship of this project with nature. Life will become much more simpler by placing everything you need within each community never more than a short walk away making living, working and enjoying life without compulsory commuting. The whole image of the city is shown below where the city will be divided into three parts pedestrian layer, service layer and spine layer and will operate accordingly.
Impact of this project on the economy
Saudi Arabia has always been seen as a country whose only source of revenue was oil which is true because Saudi Arabia has an oil-based economy with strong government controls over major economic activities. It possesses about 16% of the world's proven petroleum reserves, ranks as the largest exporter of petroleum, and plays a leading role in OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries). The petroleum sector accounts for roughly 87% of budget revenues, 42% of GDP, and 90% of export earnings but now Saudi Arabia is encouraging the growth of the private sector in order to diversify its economy and to employ more Saudi nationals and this project is expected to contribute $48 billion to the kingdom’s gross domestic product which will increase the country’s gdp by 6.98% and create 380,000 jobs which would be a very good thing considering the impact it will have on the environment.
Cost of building THE LINE
The actual plan is to diversify the economy of Saudi Arabia from oil and adopting a pollution free city run by renewable energy, AI and robotics. The whole NEOM project is expected to cost around $500 billion while the current THE LINE project is expected to cost around $100 billion to $200 billion. The crown prince also said the backbone of investment would come from Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), as well as local and international investors for the NEOM project.
The world’s top oil producer has realized that the times are going to change and in a city like NEOM, Mohammed bin Salman is expecting high foreign investments in the city as NEOM is planned to be a futuristic megacity spanning across three countries; Egypt, Jordon and Saudi Arabia. Today we have seen a country like Saudi Arabia taking steps towards conserving the environment and trying to build a futuristic city with AI, robotics and nature which will be beneficial to both humans and nature. THE LINE is just the start of the NEOM project and we hope to see more nations take action to conserve the environment like Paris, Japan, Saudi Arabia, etc.
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