The crown prince of Saudi has revealed plans to build a zero-carbon city at NEOM.

The city will be known as “The Line”, extend over 170 km and will a global centre for technology and innovation.

“I present to you THE LINE, a city of a million residents with a length of 170 km that preserves 95% of nature within NEOM, with zero cars, zero streets and zero carbon emissions,” said Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a rare televised appearance.

The new city and business zone will aim to diversify the economy for Saudi, as well as house 1m residents with industry, agriculture, energy generation and utilities.

The area that will be covered will stretch the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba and is the size of a country. The Line at NEOM will be 33 times the size of New York City and almost the size of Belgium.

Focusing on sustainability, the prince has said that the city will focus on people, not roads.

“Why should we sacrifice nature for the sake of development,” said the Prince.  “Why should seven million people die every year because of pollution? And why should we accept wasting years of our lives commuting? We need to transform the concept of a conventional city into that of a futuristic one.”

Construction of the NEOM will begin in the first quarter of 2021 and will cost between $100-$200bn. It is expected to contribute $48bn to Saudi’s economy and create 380,000 jobs.