Oman has revealed plans for the construction of a Smart City for 100,000 people on a largely undeveloped site outside the country’s capital city of Muscat. The new city is designed to provide better living conditions and affordable living for Omani citizens on low incomes. Smart city technologies will be employed to monitor environmental factors such as air quality and water management. The city will feature a traffic management system that uses real-time data from cameras and speed sensors to control traffic flow and reroute traffic.

Priority will be given to supporting citizens on social security, including low income families struggling with rent payments, as well as pensioners, divorcees, sick and disabled people, and families of prisoners.

Sultan Haitham City is the outcome of plans by the country’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning. It envisages sustainable urban development realising thriving communities through implementation of national strategic projects for urban development in line with Oman Vision 2040.

The city will occupy an area of 14,800,000 square metres and is designed to house 100,000 people. It will have 20,000 housing units ranging between separate villas, semi-attached villas, townhouses and flats.

The city will have 11 health facilities, including two health centres that cater to the needs of 20,000 patients and another set of six health centres with a capacity to serve 10,000 patients. It will have a referral hospital with a capacity of 1,200 beds, a private hospital and a centre to serve persons with disability and elderly people. It will also have 39 government and private schools to cover all educational levels.

The city will develop features such as pedestrian passages and bicycle paths to help diversify the methods of traffic, healthy lifestyles and sustainability of the environment. These include options for the use of renewable energy and measures for water conservation.

Sultan Haitham City has been designed to raise the quality of life by optimising the use of solar energy as a sustainable source. Waste energy production systems and wastewater outputs will act as key factors in the protection of natural resources.