Legal framework for NEOM will be ready by Q1 2022, says Al-Nasr RIYADH: Infrastructure work has begun on the Kingdom’s revolutionary zero carbon city “The Line” and it is expected to be ready for inhabitants and tourists as early as the first quarter of 2024, said Nadhmi Al-Nasr, CEO of NEOM in an interview with Bloomberg. “Today if you go to NEOM you will see construction all over, you will see earthworks going on all over, you will see regions that are being developed,” he said. NEOM will be located on the Red Sea coast in the northwest of Saudi Arabia, and will be totally powered by renewable energy sources. Al-Nasr said more than 1,500 employees work and live on site. One of the next steps might be to approve special regulations that will govern NEOM as a “free zone,” with different laws than the rest of the Kingdom. The CEO of the megacity said the legal framework will be ready by the first quarter of the next year. The Line, a 170-km-long strip, will form the backbone of the NEOM development, driving a pathway of modern development from the Red Sea to the desert valleys at the eastern end of the NEOM development zone. It is important to realize that NEOM will be much more than The Line. The total development, at a total of 27,000 sq. km, is the equivalent of a small country, and will have within it all the essentials for a self-sustaining economy such as industry, agriculture, energy generation and utilities provision. It will be a global destination too, as a transport and logistics hub for the Middle East and an important aviation link for business and tourism.