RIYADH: The $11.6 billion King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) is already being admired for being a smart city but nobody can tell when it will be completed.

“Being a smart city, everything is state-of-the-art. There is seamless Internet access and security, which means you feel as if you were home though it’s a smart city,” a source said.

He added that being at the KAFD, “people recognize you, which means that concerned authorities know if you’re bad or not.”

The source, who works for one of KAFD’s supervisory and project management companies, said that a completion date cannot be fixed because additional buildings are being planned.

“From the original 34 buildings planned in a 1.6-million square meter area for the project, there are now 112 and more are being added,” he said, adding that he wouldn’t be surprised if more buildings are added in the near future.

One of the biggest buildings, if not the biggest, the source added, belongs to the Capital Market Authority (CMA) with a height of 385 meters.

It includes the Tadawul (Saudi Stock Exchange), a financial academy, and headquarters of banks, companies and other financial institutions. About 21 percent of the buildings, he said, will be residential.

The source added that if and when the project is finished, it will be one-of-a kind because “it will certainly draw attention of the world.”

“It has 10 big attractions that include a world-class conference center, a science museum, an amusement park, spa (for men and women) and infrastructure that includes wireless Internet connection, among many others,” he said.

Earlier, it was reported that the project could be delayed because many of the illegal foreign workers had to leave the Kingdom in a crackdown that began in 2013.

A foreign magazine slammed the project, saying that the KAFD “is a sober alternative to Dubai’s exuberant International financial center.”

It said: “A problem is its size. The Saudi economy may be doing well … but not so well that its businesses could easily digest all the extra property.”

It added that the “new financial district has thrice as many high-end office spaces as the rest of Riyadh. In other words, even if every company in the city’s plusher offices moved to the new district it would still be two-thirds empty.”

Industry captains and chiefs added the goal behind establishing “this great economic edifice is to be a financial, regional and international center including official financial institutions, other financial bodies and other relevant facilities and services.”

This center is to be one of the most important sites in Riyadh. It is the first of its kind in the Middle East in terms of size, organization, and technical specifications and equipment which makes it emulate the world’s financial centers, they added.

The contractors include Saudi Binladen, El Seif, Nesma, Al-Fanar, Saudi Systra, Cityscape (for landscaping) and Al-Bawani.

The KAFD is being developed by the Rayadah Investment Corporation on behalf of the Kingdom’s Public Pension Agency .