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End of the Line? Saudi Arabia to scale back plans for desert megacity


Crown prince’s pet project was sold as a 105-mile-long city of the future, but finances may have led to a rethink

It was billed as a glass-walled city of the future, an ambitious centrepiece of the economic plan backed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to transition Saudi Arabia away from oil dependency. A few hundred metres wide, the linear city had been sold as the future of accessible urban planning, with amenities for residents within close walking distance to accommodation and districts connected by one of the world’s fastest trains. Prince Mohammed, who has long been accused of involvement in the killing of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in 2018, had described the city project as “tackling the challenges facing humanity in urban life today” to “shine a light on alternative ways to live”.

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