In the heart of Saudi Arabia’s PR machine lies The LINE — a 170-kilometre futuristic city project, free of cars, wrapped in mirrors, and branded as a symbol of innovation and progress under Vision 2030. But reality has caught up with the fantasy: The LINE has now shrunk by 99%, exposing a project built not on feasibility but on delusion.
From 170 Kilometres to Just 2.4
A bombshell report by The Sun revealed that The LINE has been scaled back from 170 km to just 2.4 km, with its population target reduced from 1.5 million to only 300,000. These are not mere “adjustments,” as the regime claims, but a tacit admission that the project has failed to deliver even its most basic promises.
This dramatic reduction exposes The LINE as a utopian fantasy crafted in PR offices — not a serious urban plan. It was built to dazzle the West and distract the Saudi public, all while the kingdom faces mounting debt, a worsening budget deficit, and declining oil revenues.
Not Human-Centric, But Surveillance-Centric
The project was never about improving lives. The LINE’s design embodies complete control over residents: AI tracking every breath, cameras saturating public spaces, and a subterranean transport system that erases public life from view.
Despite its greenwashing, the project is far from sustainable. It’s an environmental disaster in the making — draining resources to build a mirrored mega-structure in an ecologically sensitive Red Sea zone.
Burning Billions in a Financial Crisis
Saudi Arabia’s economy is floundering:
- Oil prices remain unstable — its only real wealth source
- The budget deficit is deepening
- Foreign investors are fleeing
Bloomberg recently revealed that the Public Investment Fund (PIF) has hired consulting firms to reassess the viability of The LINE, a move that suggests even insiders now doubt its economic foundation. Meanwhile, the “Sindalah” project, another component of NEOM, has reportedly been shelved due to design flaws and funding shortfalls — a recurring theme of megaprojects collapsing under their own weight.
The Human Cost: The Blood Beneath the Mirrors
Behind the glimmering facade lies tragedy. Thousands from the indigenous Howeitat tribe were forcibly removed to clear land for The LINE. When Abdulrahim al-Huwaiti refused eviction in 2020, he was shot dead by Saudi security forces in broad daylight — a crime that remains unpunished.
Leaked documents and testimonies from defected intelligence officers confirm that top-level orders were given to “eliminate” residents resisting displacement — a chilling reminder of the regime’s brutality.
This isn’t an isolated case. In Jeddah, entire neighborhoods were razed to make way for elite entertainment zones, displacing thousands with no compensation — a systematic policy of exclusion in service of spectacle.
A Cultural Mirage: A City That Doesn’t Belong
Beyond economic and human rights concerns, The LINE represents a massive cultural dislocation. The project reflects a digital fantasy world completely alien to Saudi society. Floating stadiums, nightclubs, and all-digital lifestyles are being forced onto a population struggling with inflation, joblessness, and inadequate services.
The regime is selling a lifestyle that doesn’t reflect its people — a top-down attempt to engineer a future that ignores history, culture, and community.
The Collapse of a Vision
The facts are undeniable:
- The project is reduced by 99%
- No serious foreign investment remains
- The PIF is re-evaluating its feasibility
- Communities have been violently uprooted
The LINE is no longer an ambitious architectural venture. It’s a symbol of a ruling elite completely detached from reality — a delusional attempt to equate progress with mirrored towers and surveillance.
It is the embodiment of MBS’s rule: colossal ambition without substance, and cosmetic reforms built on repression and fantasy. Saudi citizens know that The LINE was never meant for them. It is a burden on their backs, a monument to debt, and a reminder that Vision 2030 is crumbling before their eyes.
THE LINE now leads straight into a dead end — the spectacular failure of a regime obsessed with image over integrity, hype over humanity, and delusions over justice.
