A recent report from The Wall Street Journal has revealed that The Saudi Crown Family’s plans to build a pair of 106 mile-long (170.59 kilometres), 1,600-foot (487.68 metres) skyscrapers called The Line, is running into major financial problems.
The plans come from 38-year-old Mohammed bin Salman who has been the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia since 2017 and de facto ruler.
The Line is a part of a collection of major developments for the region of Neom, in the north-west of the country.
WSJ reported capital expenditure estimates to build Neom to its "end-state" by 2080 have ballooned to US$8.8 trillion.
An audit report carried out by WSJ found "evidence of deliberate manipulation" of finances by "certain members of management" revealing that officials had been attempting to fabricate numbers to hide evidence of the project's ballooning costs.
The cost of building The Line, in particular, was raised significantly with the plan to have the skyscraper stretch 100 miles through the desert looking increasingly unlikely.
Even schemes for a first piece of the skyscraper were revised from ten miles to just 1.5 miles within the next decade, with the goal still to open up the first part of the project's starting piece by 2034.
As a result of WSJ reports it appears the Neom project is facing a multitude of unprecedented complications, with Neom's former CEO Nadhmi al-Nasr leaving in November, weeks after a documentary alleged that tens of thousands of foreign workers had already died during the city's construction.
A ski resort, floating port and the industrial city of Oxagon are also part of a collection of “gigaprojects”, which include the “world destination” of Jeddah Central - 5.7 million square metres of waterfront development featuring an opera house, a stadium, an oceanarium and a museum.
Also In the capital of Riyadh, a brigade of cranes is building Diriyah Gate, a US$63.2 billion “iconic lifestyle destination” and “sustainable landmark”, with 41 “world-class” hotels, homes for 100,000 residents and 26 cultural attractions, with a golf course and equestrian centre all around UNESCO-listed city of At-Turaif.
All of which forms a part of Vision 2030, a programme of investment and influence, paid for with the help of $778 billion of sovereign wealth in the Saudi Public Investment Fund, that seeks to diversify the Saudi economy away from oil.
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