Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has outlined plans for 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.
“It is a new era of civilisation, a new model for a city which is clean, proper and with zero carbon,” said economist Mazen Al Sudairi. “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 170km 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 $100bn to $200bn.
“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.
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