“Now, however, plans for the mirror-clad desert metropolis called the Line have been scaled down and the project, which was envisaged to stretch 105 miles (170km) is expected to reach just a mile and a half by 2030.”
The Line was sold as a 105-mile city for 9 million people at a cost of $1.5tn. It now aims for a mile and a half by 2030, and at least one contractor is laying off workers. The 2024 Neom budget still lacks approval from a sovereign wealth fund with shrinking cash. Members of the Howeitat tribe were reportedly executed for protesting a city that will barely leave the drawing board.