Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) continues to spend billions of riyals on fake projects that, according to experts, will never see the light of day.
According to reliable sources, it cost 2 billion riyals to build King Salman Station in the Riyadh Metro.
The sources revealed that the cost of building one metro station is equal to the cost of building the entire metro line. The marble used is one of the most expensive products on the list of costs and is imported from Italy.
The Investment Fund incurred expenses totaling 15 billion riyals to conduct the study on developing the Jeddah areas.
The study covers the sea area between the side of the military hospital and the Al-Salam region, followed by the desalination region.
MBS's dream of a new Saudi reality is just getting weirder, despite the heavy spending.
MBS spent half a trillion dollars on the NEOM project infrastructure, which will be halted due to a financial shortfall.
Reliable sources earlier revealed that the Line mega-project, founded by MBS, was halted due to the same reasons.
The sources also emphasized that MBS imposed a complete media blackout over news about the matter. He instead ordered to shed light on the Kingdom's foreign policy in relation to Iran.
The project will remain only in MBS's mind, as the technology needed to build the city does not really exist and it seems like a fantasy video game.
A video widely circulated on social media has linked The Line project to the Al-Barayeh smart city environmental project, designed by Kuwaiti engineer Faisal Al-Jehaim.
There was also a sense of déjà vu when Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, unveiled his plans for the futuristic 100-mile-long linear city, momentously titled “The Line.”
It will be free from cars, Forbes declared, powered by renewable energy and run by artificial intelligence, slicing straight through the Arabian desert in one continuous strip. As part of the country’s $500 billion Neom development plan, the plan was trumpeted as a “civilizational revolution that puts humans first,” but it had inescapable echoes of another project with a very different purpose.
MBS has long been criticised over his huge spending on unreal megacities, saying that architecture is often drawn to authoritarian regimes, as well, for no other reason than their ability to do things by decree, citing NEOM mega-project as an example.
It is worth mentioning that NEOM offered tax-free salaries of $700,000 to $900,000 for some senior expatriates, more than 20 times the income of the average Saudi, and a broad range of other perks.
NEOM has become something of a full-employment guarantee for international architects, futurists, and even Hollywood production designers, each taking a cut of Saudi Arabia’s petroleum riches in exchange for work that some strongly suspect will never be used and for designs that never see the light of day.
The unconventional megacity is part of MBS' ambitious NEOM development project, which released conceptual videos showing the city's high walls enclosing trees, gardens, and other plant life, nestling communities among work and recreational structures.
