Azernews.Az

By Alimat Aliyeva

Saudi Arabia's plans to create a giant skyscraper city in the middle of the desert have been called into question due to a sharp increase in the cost of the project, Azernews reports.

The projected capital expenditures for the Mirror Line project, which is scheduled for completion around 2080, have escalated to $8.8 trillion. This amount is 25 times higher than the kingdom's annual budget.

Adding to the controversy, an auditor's report obtained by reporters revealed that officials had attempted to falsify the figures to conceal evidence of inflated project costs.

Originally, the skyscraper was envisioned to stretch 160 kilometers across the desert, but this ambitious plan now seems unlikely to come to fruition. Even the design for the first section of the skyscraper, which was initially slated for completion by 2034, has been revised. Its length has been reduced from 16 kilometers to just 2.4 kilometers.

However, proposals to reduce the skyscraper's planned height in order to save money were strongly opposed by Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, who remains a staunch advocate for maintaining the project’s grand vision.

The Mirror Line is part of Saudi Arabia’s broader Neom project, a futuristic city aimed at transforming the region into a global hub for innovation, technology, and tourism. The project, which includes other ambitious developments like floating cities and zero-emissions infrastructure, has been met with both excitement and skepticism. While it promises to reshape the landscape of urban living, the immense cost and technical challenges are raising doubts about its feasibility. The project’s fate could have profound implications for Saudi Arabia’s vision of diversifying its economy beyond oil, but it also faces mounting scrutiny as the financial and environmental costs grow.