THE Line hailed by Saudi Arabia’s leaders as the jewel of the kingdom’s $2 trillion economic transformation has halted its plans after spending too much money.
The stance on the crazy 1,600-foot-tall city appears to have changed drastically, as they claim to have rushed into implementing plans that have left them in the red.
Linear city plans showed the building stretching 106 miles inland from the Red Sea resort of Neom, but now Riyadh has taken an even further step back in its Vision 2030 strategy.
They admitted to halting plans for the strategy, which aims to shift the kingdom’s economy away from the oil industry to prosper through tourism, technology and sporting events.
At a major investment forum in Riyadh last week, one official said: “We spend too much.
“We are running at 100 miles per hour. We have deficits. We need to change priorities.”
Founded in 2016, Riyadh has invested hundreds of billions in vanity projects like The Line, which will be the blueprint for what life would be like in the future.
The scandalous settlement was supposed to boast no cars, no roads, no carbon emissions, and home to a population of nine million.
Earlier this year it was reported that the project was hanging by a thread as it was scaled back by 99 percent to extend just 1.5 miles and house 300,000 people compared to 1.5 million residents.
The Vision 2030 plan is based on the assumption that Saudi Arabia’s dominant industry, oil, would remain at $100 a barrel or more.
In 2025, a barrel will cost approximately $60 and has not reached triple digits in three years, a major problem for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
It comes after years of rapid growth and billions of investment funneled into “gigaprojects” such as The Line, which has shrunk to just a few miles.
Jerry Inzerillo, an American-born executive and key adviser to the prince, said the nation was “course-correcting” as a result of the country’s financial crisis.
With oil accounting for more than half of the country’s economy, it is now forced to be “more conservative,” he told The Times.
Jerry added: “‘Saudi Arabia is a very rich country, but there is a limit to how much it can spend relative to GDP.”
Saudi Arabia they desperately asked the consultants to review your plans to build the strange city and insiders told Bloomberg they inquired about the viability of The Lines.
Neom previously said in a statement: “As is typical for large-scale, multi-year projects, strategic reviews are common practice and occur multiple times over the course of a major development project or infrastructure program.
“The Line remains a strategic priority and Neom is focused on maintaining operational continuity, improving efficiency and accelerating progress to match the overall vision and objectives of the project.”
Saudi officials faced backlash when they confirmed that the Trojena mountain resort, which is scheduled to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games, will also not be ready on time.
One official said: “It will be three or four years late and will probably be ready by 2032, in time for the 2033 games.”
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South Korea is prepared to step in to host the 2029 games, The Times reports.
Although many of Saudi Arabia’s projects will be completed on time due to strict and fast deadlines.
