Neom’s recent awards ceremony highlights the project’s ongoing controversies.
- The Saudi Arabian mega-project Neom held its inaugural Social Responsibility Awards but withheld partner names.
- Civil engineering companies remain silent amidst allegations of lethal force used in Neom’s development.
- Reports of curtailed construction plans for The Line add to the project’s controversial reputation.
- Access restrictions to a new Neom platform raise questions about transparency.
Neom, the ambitious Saudi Arabian government-led giga-project, has conducted an awards ceremony recognising the outstanding contributions of its business partners in social responsibility, yet chose not to disclose their identities. This move adds to the ongoing controversies surrounding the project, which is considered one of the largest civil engineering undertakings globally.
Despite the scale of the project, many civil engineering firms associated with Neom are reticent about discussing their involvement. This silence follows a report by the BBC in May 2024, detailing orders given to use lethal force against civilians obstructing the construction of ‘The Line,’ a linear city at the heart of the Neom project. According to a former Saudi Arabian intelligence officer, Col Rabih Alenezi, he was instructed to eliminate indigenous people refusing to vacate their homes in al-Khuraybah, a village predominantly inhabited by the Huwaitat tribe, situated 4.5km south of ‘The Line’.
In parallel, Bloomberg’s report on the alleged curtailment of ‘The Line”s construction from a 1.5 million population capacity to a mere 2.4km length was emphatically denied by a Saudi government minister. These conflicting reports further muddle the narratives surrounding Neom, creating a landscape fraught with uncertainty for investors and stakeholders.
To assuage these concerns, Neom launched the website ‘Ground X’, showcasing extensive visual documentation from 452 time-lapse and 63 live cameras, in addition to imagery from over 300 drone locations across the project. Yet, access to this digital platform is tightly controlled, limited to those holding Neom accounts or affiliations, which raises questions over the transparency and openness of the project’s operations.
Prominent firms such as Aecom, Bechtel, and AtkinsRéalis, among others, are known to have secured substantial contracts within Neom’s framework, yet none have publicly acknowledged attendance at the award ceremony, suggesting the prevalence of non-disclosure agreements. Efforts by New Civil Engineer to elicit confirmations from these firms about their award status or involvement were met with no response, adding to the enigmatic aura surrounding the event.
The Neom project continues to be shrouded in controversy, marked by secrecy and contentious practices, overshadowing its engineering feats.
