Saudi Arabia’s Futuristic City Neom Suddenly Lost Its CEO

Neom, Saudi Arabia’s urban development project that builds the city of the future in the middle of the desert, has lost its leader. Saudi chemical engineer Nadhmi al-Nasr has been leading the project since 2018. Report from The Wall Street JournalHe left the project and no one knows exactly why.

Neom is the wild dream of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The plot is about transforming the area into an urban paradise with robot dinosaurs, flying cars and a giant artificial moon. It is expected to cost $500 billion.

Nasr has been in charge of this major project until today. According to the people talking Reuters and the Wall Street Journal reported that Nasr was fired for failing to meet construction deadlines. Now Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), is taking over.

Things have been going wrong in Neom for a long time. The sheer scope of the project will be too much for any country to handle. At the heart of the project is The Line, a linear supercity originally designed to accommodate 9 million residents. It would stretch from the Red Sea to the city of Tabuk, with huge mirrored skyscrapers at each end. It was difficult to build, and planners repeatedly scaled back the project’s goal.

Approximately 100,000 workers currently live in temporary cities in Neom, many of whom are building The Line. According to reports, Nasr was a cruel taskmaster. “I drive everyone like slaves” he said a recording of a meeting was leaked. “When they die, I celebrate. This is how I do my projects.”

Approximately 21,000 people died while working at Neom. Latest reports from British TV network ITV’s statement It tells the story of how migrant workers from India, Bangladesh and Nepal come to Saudi Arabia to live and work at The Line. Tens of thousands of people are said to have died there. Hindustan Times reports that nearly 100,000 more people loss.

Building a shining city in the desert proved difficult; It’s so hard it’s killing its workers. It is stated that costs are also increasing rapidly. The construction costs of any project (from building a shed in your backyard to building a skyscraper in New York City) always weigh on the start-up phase. Costs fluctuate over time. But trying to build an advanced city run by artificial intelligence in an unfavorable climate turns out to be more expensive than first thought. Critics put the cost at $2 trillion; That’s four times the original $500 billion figure.

Saudi Arabia’s PIF has only $1 trillion on hand.