It is a city built around people, easily accessible, entirely powered by renewable energy and heavily reliant on artificial intelligence. The aim is to have schools, clinics, leisure facilities, and everything its inhabitants need accessible within a five-minute walk.
Open spaces, parks, and sustainable food production meet seamlessly, creating vistas of beauty and tranquillity.
This kind of community is not a figment of our imagination, but a project announced by Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman last month.
"I present to you The Line, a city of a million residents with a length of 170 km that preserves 95% of nature within NEOM, with zero cars, zero streets and zero carbon emissions," the Crown Prince said in a video briefing.
Amid growing populations, rising CO2 emissions and sea levels, urbanists say that the new city unveils the future of urban living design.
"Why should we sacrifice nature for the sake of development? Why should seven million people die every year because of pollution? Why should we lose one million people every year due to traffic accidents? And why should we accept wasting years of our lives commuting?" the Crown Prince said in the project announcement video.
The Saudi crown prince added that the project would create 380,000 new jobs, spur economic diversification and contribute SAR 180 billion to gross domestic product GDP by 2030.
The Line is located in NEOM, a $500bn cross-border city development in the Tabuk Province of northwestern Saudi Arabia. The megacity links the Red Sea coast with the mountains and upper valleys of the north-west of Saudi Arabia.
According to NEOM's website, more than 40% of the global population will be able to reach NEOM's breath-taking terrain in less than a four-hour flight, while 13% of the world's trade already flows through the Red Sea.
"The Line will reshape the traditional concept of urban life, overcome challenges of modern cities, and prioritize people." Mahmoud Gheith, Professor of Urban Planning at Cairo University and head of the Egyptian Association of Urban Planning, told Majalla.
Geith added that there is an urgent need to protect landscapes and integrate nature into communities for sustainability and citizens' wellbeing.
BLAZING A TRAIL
"The Line is the project of the century. With its natural and financial resources, Saudi Arabia will be a pioneer in the development of 5th-generation cities," the Cairo University professor said.
Gheith added that the Crown Prince is thinking centuries ahead. He explained that the rest of the world will be moving towards futuristic cities that merge with nature in harmony and rely on artificial intelligence to improve services and products.
"We will inevitably reach this point, but Saudi Arabia is thinking ahead and blazing a trail for other regional countries to move in this direction too," he said.
The NEOM project is part of the Saudi Arabia Vision 2030, an ambitious program designed to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy away from oil.
The project's borders will extend across Egypt and Jordan's borders, making it the first private economic zone to span three countries.
The megacity project will apply the latest technologies, including automated cars, passenger drones, robots and hypermodern farming.
SHAPING SAUDI 2030
Sameh el-Alayli, a professor of urban planning at Cairo University, said that Saudi Arabia is not only building new futuristic cities, but it is also working to transform traditional communities into innovative and sustainable cities.
In 2020, the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs launched an initiative to turn the Kingdom's five major cities into smart, sustainable communities. The five cities are Mecca, Riyadh, Medina, Jeddah and Dammam.
"This is to help achieve high efficiency in city management, raise the quality of life in Saudi cities, improve access to services, attract direct investments, increase the competitive level of Saudi cities and create job opportunities for residents," the ministry said on its official website.
"The Saudi government is certainly mindful not to create rich ghettos isolated from the rest of the Kingdom. It is integrating all cities, aiming to create sustainability while putting people at the heart of the transformation," el-Alyali told Majalla.
"Saudi Vision 2030 recognizes its citizens as the main resource for its development and progress, in addition to natural and financial resources," he added.
