The highly ambitious project and lack of funds led the Saudi authorities to slow down the project.
Saudi Arabia's ambitions to develop a futuristic city in the desert, known as The Line, is a city on a straight line.
Initially, the government's goal was for 1.5 million people to live in this city by 2030, but the forecast has been revised downward: less than 300,000 people by the end of the decade, according to Bloomberg.
The goal will be to build this city in phases of up to 170 kilometers along the Red Sea coast. But it is now expected to reach 2.4 km by 2030.
The structure will reach a height of 500 meters above sea level, and a width of 200 metres.
The goal is to house nine million people in just 34 square kilometers, without roads, cars or emissions, with 100% renewable energy, served by a high-speed train.
The Saudi authorities did not comment.
In addition to the line, the NEOM project includes an industrial city, ports, tourism projects, and hosting the Asian Winter Games in 2029, in the city of Trogena.
One of the projects is scheduled to open this year, which is an island in the Red Sea that has been transformed into a luxury tourist destination called Sindalah.
Meanwhile, one of the contractors has begun laying off people as the project declines, which is due to the non-approval of its budget for this year by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, according to the news agency.
The project's excessive ambition conflicts with Vision 2030, the program that aims to diversify the Saudi economy.
Among NEOM's projects is a green hydrogen factory, with an investment of eight billion dollars, along with solar and wind energy plants, with the Kingdom's ambition to become one of the largest producers of this fuel in the world to reduce its dependence on oil revenues.
