Saudi Arabia’s 170km-long desert city is in trouble. The futuristic, carbon-neutral Neom project is turning into financial quicksand. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has staked his legacy on building the radical linear structure. It’s a majestic vision. MORE: Countries that will pay Aussies $140k to move there It’s touted as an urban utopia erected upon cutting-edge, sustainable technology. Its best-known component has been dubbed The Line. The pivotal 500m tall structure that spans the Arabian peninsula is ultimately intended to house as many people as New York City’s Manhattan Island. MORE: Aussie crypto millionaires’ secret money stash Among its many dreamlike features is an artificial ski resort, complete with rooftop slopes. At the other end of the scale is Desert Rock – a luxury retreat carved out of the rugged Hejaz Mountains. But the story of the ambitious gigaproject is adopting a familiar tone. The $A80 billion worth of works already underway are plagued by delays and severe cost overruns. Poor roads. Insufficient electricity. A lack of skilled workers. Controversy is also no stranger. Critics claim as many as 21,000 workers have already lost their lives since construction began in 2017. The upshot: The project will likely take over half a century to complete. Little wonder the project’s CEO has suddenly stepped down. And part of the blame is reportedly attributed to the international consulting giant McKinsey & Company. Its consultants are involved in both the planning and auditing of the Neom project’s progress. According to the Wall Street Journal, there are accusation of books being cooked to hide the true cost from the Crown Prince. An internal review presented to the project’s board is said to have revised the anticipated cost to $A14 trillion. That’s 25 times Saudi Arabia’s annual gross domestic product (GDP). Neom executives have accused the WSJ of misrepresenting the figures contained in the cost assessment. And they’ve pointed to the progress made so far. The first component of the gigaproject was completed last year. But the 83 hectare Sindalah coastal island resort apparently remains unfinished, and largely uninhabited. This may be a matter of choice, however. The Crown Prince is said to be behind its strict invitation-only policy. The nearby Port of Neom on the Red Sea has grown substantially since opening in 2022. But there is still much work to do before it matches the glittering perfection of Neom’s glossy brochures. The hi-tech industrial facility is a critical component of future city projects. Much of the needed construction material will pass through the shipping hub. It’s designed to become the world’s largest port, capable of handling 12 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent shipping units). Australia’s busiest is the Port of Melbourne, shifting some 3.2 million TEU annually. About 10sq km of floating infrastructure, including piers and loading pontoons, will be built to minimise impact on the coastal environment. An entire coral reef has already been transplanted to isolate it from the impact of shipping traffic. And silt dredged from the port’s channels is not being dumped back into the ocean. Instead, it is stockpiled ashore for use in land reclamation and foundation construction projects. AI-controlled cranes, vehicles, and trains will form the backbone of a transportation network that links The Line to the world. And the adjacent 48sq km Oxagon industrial precinct is set to house a new $8 billion low-energy AI data centre on-site. Work on an associated green-hydrogen fuel production facility is already nearing completion. It will begin daily production of up to 600 tonnes of the zero-emissions gas by the end of this year. The first segment of The Line itself is also under construction. The 2.4km, 500m tall strip will house 200,000 residents within its mirrored-glass walls. Its rooftop will include the Hidden Marina – a stadium intended to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament. Meanwhile, the Crown Prince is himself being blamed for ongoing cost blowouts and delays. The WSJ says Neom executives are eager to accommodate his every whim. That includes personal preferences for everything from shapes and colours to materials and positioning. And one of his pet projects is proving especially hard to turn into reality. A Marvel film designer was hired to create a spectacular statement for Prince Salman’s enjoyment. It’s a glass building hanging upside down from a steel bridge. But construction work on this part of the project is yet to commence. Jamie Seidel is a freelance writer | @jamieseidel.bsky.social