Member of the European Parliament, Christine Anderson, said that the NEOM, which has been launched by Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman (MBS), came as part of the 15-minute city concept.
The 15-minute city is an urban planning concept in which most daily necessities and services, such as work, shopping, education, healthcare, and leisure can be easily reached by a 15-minute walk or bike ride from any point in the city.
The most extreme application of the 15-minute city concept is NEOM, the proposed linear city in Saudi Arabia stretching over 100 kilometers. Solar powered, and connected with a hyperloop train, the plans promise that people should be able to get from one point in the city to any other point within 15 minutes. The proposed plan has its skeptics as it provides full control over people’s lives through security services.
French Intelligence Online website earlier revealed that the French drone maker Azur Drones has taken an order to supply Saudi Arabia projects of NEOM and Al-Ula, as the firm continues to develop its business in the region.
According to the website, France’s Azur Drones, a small company based near Bordeaux, will deliver several Skeyetech autonomous surveillance drones to Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks.
Two of the $250,000 drones will go to NEOM, Saudi Arabia’s $500bn smart city project, with the two others going to the Royal Commission for Al-Ula.
In March 2022, Jean-Marc Crépin, Azur Drone’s CEO, signed a strategic partnership with Turki Matooq Al Thonayan, the CEO of National Security Services Company (SAIF), owned by the Kingdom’s sovereign Public Investment Fund.
The website pointed out that Azur Drones firm was introduced to SAFE by the Jemarius Consulting. In June this year, Azur obtained a contract to deploy the Skeyetech at the megacity project.
The consulting firm helped Azure Drones to sell its first Skeyetech in the Middle East, to the Dubai Police.
The NEOM “style catalog” includes elevators that somehow fly through the sky, an urban spaceport, and buildings shaped like a double helix, a falcon’s outstretched wings, and a flower in bloom. There will be swim lanes for commuters and “smart” everything.
The project has tapped futurists, international architects, and even Hollywood production designers.
In 2005, plans for six new cities were announced, but only one made it off the drawing board: King Abdullah Economic City, a $30bn project 90 miles from Jeddah on the Red Sea coast. High hopes for the city have failed to come to fruition: it has a population of around 7,000 people, against the original target of two million by 2035.
As for NEOM, many millions have so far been spent on architects, futurists and even Hollywood set designers. But so far only a handful of buildings have been built. The chaotic trajectory so far suggests that MbS’s urban dream may never be delivered.
