Saudi Arabia has started work on a 100-mile city that sits in a perfectly straight line.
The city, Neom, hopes to have its first residents in 2024 and will be free of cars and streets.
The Saudi government has begun the construction work to build the city, which will consist of a surface region for pedestrians and two subterranean layers for transport and infrastructure.
Residents will live among nature with all of their daily needs within a five-minute walk.
Neom will be made up of 'the line', a linear development spread across a 170km expanse whereby four regions will be connected by a 20-minute maximum underground commute.
Neom CEO Nadhmi Al-Nasr told Bloomberg that the project is “a huge undertaking,” and that “not even 1%” of the work needed to plan and build the linear city is complete.
He added: “Today if you go to Neom you will see construction all over, you will see earthworks going on all over, you will see regions that are being developed."
The city aims to develop the remote region of the kingdom’s northwest Red Sea coast, near its borders with Jordan and Egypt, into a futuristic tech hub.
Neom is part of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's “Vision 2030” to diversify away from crude, loosen social restrictions and boost investment.
Plans for the construction work were announced earlier in January of this year.
The Crown Prince said that the line will preserve 95% of nature within the city due to having no cars, thus having no carbon dioxide emissions.
They claim that the line is the first time in 150 years that a major urban development has been designed around people, not roads with the ability to walk everywhere being at the centre of the plans.
However, the unusual project has been met controversy, including questions about its feasibility after previous efforts to build economic and financial free zones struggled to hold footing.
Prince Mohammed’s violent crackdown on protestors damaged the project as he struggled to sell contracts to investors.
A relocation process for local residents devolved into violence and arrests, and several prominent figures left Neom’s advisory board after the murder of government critic Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in 2018.
Despite this, the project is underway with Al-Nasr stating that 1,500 Neom employees working and living on site.
He said that at present, workers are “moving sand, moving mountains" in order to build the underground systems that will transport people and goods.
Construction work will be “starting from two points,” and building out from each.
Earlier in January, Crown Prince Mohammed said: "THE LINE will comprise carbon-positive urban developments powered by 100% clean energy, providing pollution-free, healthier and more sustainable environments for residents.
"Mixed-use communities will be built around nature, instead of over it."
