Neom: Saudi's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has announced a revolutionary zero-carbon city within Saudi Arabia’s futuristic NEOM business hub.
Titled 'The Line', the new city will be the first car-free city in Saudi Arabia, the construction of which is set to start in the first quarter of this year.
“It is a new era of civilization, a new model for a city which is clean, proper and with zero carbon,” Saudi economist Mazen Al-Sudairi told Arab News welcoming this major step. “This will improve the efficiency of humankind.”
One million residents will be able to live in the “zero cars, zero streets and zero carbon emissions” city once complete.
The massive project is expected to receive huge cloud computing investments, amounting to more than $1.5 billion, with the backbone of investment coming from the Public Investment Fund and local and international investors, the Crown Prince said.
The city will extend over 170 km (105 miles) and be able to house a million residents in “carbon-positive urban developments powered by 100 per cent clean energy”.
“Why should we sacrifice nature for the sake of development?” Prince Mohammed said. “We need to transform the concept of a conventional city into that of a futuristic one.”
The prince later told reporters in the northwestern city of Al Ula that the project was the conclusion of three years of preparation, adding that its infrastructure would cost $100 billion to $200 billion.
“The backbone of investment in ‘The Line’ will come from the $500 billion support to NEOM by the Saudi government, PIF and local and global investors over 10 years,” he added.