Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund has asked consulting firms to conduct a strategic review of its plans for The Line, a futuristic city at Neom.
The kingdom's Public Investment Fund (PIF) is asking the firms to review whether the current plans for The Line – a proposed 170-kilometre-long city – are feasible, Bloomberg reports.
Neom told the publication in a statement: "As is typical with large-scale, multi-year projects, strategic reviews are common practice and occur several times over the course of a major development project or infrastructure program."
It added: "The Line remains a strategic priority and Neom is focused on maintaining operational continuity, improving efficiencies and accelerating progress to match the overall vision and objectives of the project."
Work is underway on The Line, described by Neom as a zero-carbon city with “vertically layered” buildings for work, living and leisure.
Last year, Neom appointed adesign teamto lead the architecture and engineering for the first phase of The Line, later revealed to be the Hidden Marina.
Are plans for The Line feasible?
In addition to The Line, the $500 billion Neom giga-project includes Trojena, a mountain resort with a ski village, ski slope, wellness resorts and a nature reserve, andOxagon, an octagonal floating port city.
Its first destination, a luxury resort namedSindalah, is already open.
Earlier this year, Neomclimate advisorDonald Wuebbles warned thatthe project could alter the local environment and weather system.
“Part of my concern was, what impact isThe Lineand those [projects] going to have on the local environment…you start affecting the local weather and climate,” he told the Financial Times.
Jade Craig
