Neom: Soon 200,000 workers will make the Saudis’ dreams come true

Saudi Arabia
Neom and the megacity “The Line”: 200,000 workers will soon make the Saudis’ dreams come true

What’s next for Neom? A week ago, “Bloomberg” published a report that spoke of problems with the construction of the band city “The Line”. Now the builders flew in more than 100 construction companies to prove the world wrong.

Will they be able to do it or won’t they be able to do it? This is the case with the gigantic construction project Neom and the Bandstadt “The Line”, a 170 kilometer long metropolis in the middle of the desert, the question. After the announcement of the project, there were repeated insights into the status of the construction work. Hundreds of excavators and trucks lined the desert and dug for all they were worth. Saudi wanted this -Arabia and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman show the world: “Look, we’re really doing this.”

Despite great criticism of Neom and the projects associated with it, the ruler apparently did not allow himself to be dissuaded from setting up a monument for himself. Until the beginning of April. Because a report from the business magazine “Bloomberg“, with reference to anonymous sources, described that the goals set were probably too ambitious (you can find out more here). This should therefore be noticeable in the first construction phase of the Bandstadt, because it was said that the living space in “The Line” would be completed by 2030 not enough for the planned 1.5 million people, but they are “only” planning for 300,000 inhabitants.

The “busiest construction phase” is now to begin in Neom

Now Saudi Arabia is countering: In a current Press release let the builders know that they are about to enter the “busiest construction phase”. The already gigantic number of workers will therefore be further increased, it is said. More than 140,000 people are currently involved in the ongoing construction work – and the aim is to increase this number to over 200,000 in just one year. For comparison: This corresponds approximately to the population of Erfurt.

To reach this hard-to-imagine pool of skilled workers, the country recently flew in over 100 world-leading construction companies and held a two-day overview of the projects. Neom serves all over the world and has chosen companies based in Saudi Arabia as well as in Asia, Europe, North America and North Africa.

There is probably enough money for everyone: it is said that Saudi Arabia wants to invest up to 1.5 trillion US dollars in order to implement the numerous Neom projects. The country also wants to use Neom to a large extent as a replacement for the oil business, which is currently still flourishing, if one day the sources no longer supply what the country needs to maintain its prosperity. Therefore, a large proportion of the buildings consist of resorts and facilities for the leisure activities of wealthy tourists.

A lot of criticism, strange events, draconian punishments

Criticism of Neom abounds. For example, around 20,000 Bedouins have to leave their country for the project. Anyone who refuses will be punished draconianly. There are numerous reports of arrests, decades-long prison sentences, death sentences and shootings. For example, the activist Abdulrahim al-Howeiti was killed by government troops after a critical video message.

There are also reports of intimidation and discrimination among the construction companies involved. Given that numerous new contractual partners are now being sought, this is a complicated negotiating position.

The hiring of new contractors according to the “Bloomberg” report is also strange because it mentions at least one company that is said to have started layoffs due to the presumably changed pace of construction. If it were purely about manpower, it wouldn’t make any sense.