- The Line will be 170 km long and will form part of the metropolis of NEOM;
- Project is promoted by Mohammed bin Salman, prime minister and crown prince of the country;
- Saudi Arabia wants to create the world’s first fully smart city.
In January 2021, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced the construction of a futuristic megacity called The Line. The project shocked the world by proposing an urban construction in a straight line, which would dispense with the use of cars by residents.
Stretching 170 kilometers, the idea is for citizens to move from one end to the other in just 20 minutes using public transport. The project also wants residents to live less than five minutes from any essential facility such as supermarkets, restaurants, hospitals and others.
Construction of the megacity began in October 2021, with plans for the arrival of the first residents in 2024. In July 2022 it was announced that the first phase of the project should be completed in 2030. work, a promotional video filmed by drones was released, showing how the excavations were progressing. NEOM
If the idea seems a bit ambitious, the truth is that A Linha is part of an even bigger project, NEOM, a city that will be built in the province of Tabuk, north of the Red Sea and next to the Gulf of Aqaba. The name of the urban complex comes from the Greek root “neo”, meaning “new”, while the final “M” represents both the first letter of Mohammed bin Salman’s name and the first letter of the Arabic word for “future”. Mustaqbal.
With an estimated cost of US$ 500 billion (R$ 2.5 trillion), the mega-metropolis aims to be a smart city, a city model that uses complex algorithms to manage its services, in addition to relying exclusively on renewable energy sources .
“There will be no roads, cars or emissions. The city will run on 100% renewable energy and 95% of the land will be preserved for nature. People’s health and well-being will be prioritized over transport and infrastructure, unlike traditional cities”, says the official website.
“NEOM is a vision of what a new future could look like,” explains the website. “Simply put, NEOM will be a destination, a home for people who dream big and want to be part of building a new model for sustainable living, working and prosperity.”
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Quelle/Source: The Goa Spotlight, 07.02.2023
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