While Qiddiya – the giant project being undertaken just south of Riyadh, the Saudi capital – is grabbing all the headlines, some background to another mega project, called Neom, is reaching the Western media.
On July 27, the Daily Telegraph in the UK carried a major story about Neom, the planned US$500bn desert city to be built in the Saudi north-west. According to the newspaper, US consultants drew up 2,300 pages of plans to satisfy the Vison 2030 of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The plans contain projects with technologies that, says the publication, have not yet been invented, quoting the The Wall Street Journal. Neom’s futuristic aspirations, they said, include the ability for residents to visit glow-in-the-dark beaches, watch cage fighting robots and even drink alcohol.
The planning documents, which may only be a forerunner to a final plan, suggest the possibility of bringing rain to the desert through "cloud seeding," the process of firing dust particles into the air to encourage precipitation. It also suggests that robotic "maids" would tidy the houses of residents while they were away.
The newspapers report that Crown Prince Mohammed had taken a special interest in a proposal for a "silver beach" where the sand would glow like the face of a watch. A Jurassic Park-style island with animatronic dinosaurs and a huge artificial moon would light up each night.
It would all be overseen by a vast surveillance network of cameras, drones and facial recognition technology to ensure security. A US law company is reported to have been given the task of creating a courts system that would be separate from that of the rest of Saudi Arabia.
Neom would be located on the edge of Saudi Arabia where the Red Sea meets Egypt, Israel and Jordan and construction is under way. An airport is already in place.
