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By Theo Burman
Live News Reporter
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The largest construction project in Saudi Arabia has reached a new milestone amid growing concerns about the nation's workplace safety.
The city of Neom, which is the largest construction site in the world, announced that neighborhood planning and design for the 105-mile-long "linear city" will begin in 2025, with new global partners steering the process.
The announcement comes after a documentary shown by U.K. broadcaster ITV alleged that 21,000 foreign workers had died and another 100,000 more have gone missing while working on Saudi Arabian megaprojects.
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In a statement released on Monday, Neom announced that the city, also known as The Line, would soon be entering "Phase One" of construction, heralded by the appointment of British development consultancy firm Mott MacDonald as the city infrastructure engineer.
Global design firm Gensler was also announced as the city's planning consultant, responsible for designing microclimate, mobility, logistics, and sustainability for the city, which aims to house 9 million residents once completed.
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The Line's Chief Development Officer, Denis Hickey, said that the appointments were "a unique partnership that brings world-leading city design and engineering expertise to deliver Phase One."
The new progress comes after reports that the city's construction site was one of several across Saudi Arabia that contributed to the death of over 20,000 migrant workers.
Neom is part of Vision 2030, a series of megaprojects envisioned by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Collectively, the projects are spending more than a trillion dollars in an attempt to diversify the nation's economy away from oil and toward tourism. Neom is the largest of the projects, with an estimated cost of half a trillion dollars.
Newsweek contacted the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, which manages the Vision 2030 projects, for comment via email.
The projects, which began construction in earnest in 2017, required a large influx of workers to Saudi Arabia, with migrants from India, Bangladesh and Nepal being the largest contributors to the building sites.
But the investigation Kingdom Uncovered: Inside Saudi Arabia, shown by ITV, said that workers were treated as "trapped slaves" and "beggars," with several violations of work safety regulations reported.
The Saudi Arabian National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, which manages regulations at the nation's construction sites, has strongly denied all allegations.
In a statement, the Council said: "In reference to the misinformation circulating across various media platforms—particularly claims suggesting an increase in worker fatalities linked to working conditions in Saudi Arabia, accompanied by unfounded statistics lacking credible sources—the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health in Saudi Arabia unequivocally refutes these assertions.
"The council affirms the work-related fatalities in Saudi Arabia is 1.12 per 100,000 workers. This figure positions Saudi Arabia among the lowest globally in terms of work-related fatalities."
ITV declined to comment on the Council's statement.
Update, 08:56 a.m. ET, 11/12/24: This article was updated with additional information.
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