Will Saudi’s ‘The Line’ Achieve What Abu Dhabi’s ‘Masdar’ Failed to Do?

Will Saudi’s ‘The Line’ Achieve What Abu Dhabi’s ‘Masdar’ Failed to Do?

Earlier this week, the Saudi Crown Prince announced his country's latest project, The Line. In his ambitious presentation, the young prince promised the world a new environment-friendly city with new standards, most notable a three-zero pact; zero emissions, zero cars, and zero streets.

According to the presentation, The Line will be part of the NEOM city project, the one that was announced in 2019 as Saudi's first smart city. The Line will be a linear community over 170 km of land, 95% of which will be reserved and will run on 100% renewable energy. 

Expected to cost between $100-$200 billion, The Line is inspired by humanity's many innovative ideas that aim to limit carbon emissions and create a new more natural type of cities that doesn't pose any harm to the climate. 

Economically speaking, the city that is being built for people not cars is expected to generate at least 380k job opportunities and add about $48 billion to the GDP by 2030. It is also being designed to attract millions of residents from all over the world.

While it's unclear what forms of transportation will be used across The Line, the promoted smart infrastructure and ultra-fast vehicles are supposed to help redefine cities