RIYAHD — Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman said that Saudi Arabia strives, through the NEOM project, to create the new civilization of tomorrow and encourage other nations to keep doing similar things for the benefit of the planet. “Saudi Arabia is creating a new way of building cities and a new way of living. The people of Saudi Arabia are very much hopeful of this project as it would meet their growing demand in future,” he said while appearing in a documentary shown by Discovery Channel on Monday.

Accompanied by the senior officials and renowned architects and designers behind ‘THE LINE’ project, Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled the salient features of the project, the first of its kind in the world. THE LINE within NEOM is Saudi Arabia’s futuristic city with no roads, cars or emissions. It is considered as the biggest infrastructure project in history, promising a revolution in urban living.

Reacting to taking advantage of the huge potential of Saudi Arabia while implementing this unique project, the Crown Prince said: “We think about what kind of opportunity we have. We have the cash, we have the land, we have the stability, we have the good infrastructure, and we are the G20 country,” he said.

Regarding the motives for building such a unique city, the Crown Prince said that the population growth in Saudi Arabia will double from 33 million to about 50-55 million by 2030. “By that time, the population will reach a level of consuming the full capacity of the existing infrastructure of the Kingdom. This raises an important question that we need to create a new city,” he said.

Regarding the conceptualization of the ‘THE LINE’, Prince Mohammed said: “When we brought all these people together, I did not know what would be the outcome of it. The idea was amazing and it is huge and massive that I can’t explain it in a smaller way,” he said while emphasizing that the project will make money as it will draw big demand.

“We started talking about a lot of ideas about the shape of ‘THE LINE,’ commencing with construction of a circuit and linking it to transportation, trains, etc., and we will start building it gradually until it is completed in 2030. We brainstormed exchanging ideas, worked with many teams, and launched a competition for the best designers of the world,” he said while noting “all of them provided us with city models that are in line with the available models, but with better solutions, except for one designer who adopted the idea and said to turn the circle into a straight line.”

“All the existing models of cities are based on problems and solutions and fixing problems all the time. Hence, we wanted not to follow that pattern and adopt a different and unique one, and that is ‘THE LINE,’ he said while emphasizing “the models are now complete and we are working to implement them.”

The Crown Prince noted that the city build is already underway with the first phase’s completion is planned to align with the Vision 2030. The full 170 km long city will be built to the future. He pointed out that the north of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an area that has not yet been discovered, and has a diverse nature. “Northwest of Saudi Arabia is almost untouched and empty. It has mixed up topography, mountains, valleys, oases, dunes, beaches, islands, and corals, and it is the right place for skiing and diving.”

Referring to the artistic features of the city, the Crown Prince said that engineers and designers are not enough without art and Saudi Arabia does not want to create a city without having the whole city as a piece of art. Speaking about the leisure time for those involved in various phases of the implementation of the project, the Crown Prince said: “I have an American friend who moved to my army and when my army get out of their office, immediately they enjoy vacation. Whenever they engage in their work, they are on an excitement of finishing their job and go for an entertainment, whether it is cultural and sport events in NEOM,” he said.

In response to skepticism about Saudi Arabia’s completion of its huge projects, the crown prince said, “let them speak, and we will continue to prove them wrong.”

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