South Korea has expressed its willingness to provide technology as well as finance to build a smart city in New Chandigarh besides providing LED lighting and safe city solutions for Ludhiana and Amritsar. A state government spokesperson said on Monday that the offer was extended by Korea Telecom to a delegation led by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal. Sukhbir, during his tour of the Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) operational centre, asked Korea Telecom officials to submit a proposal for developing New Chandigarh as a smart city. He said this could be an ideal showcase for a smart city model in India as all necessary smart city solutions could be installed in New Chandigarh which was being built from scratch. [related-post] The Deputy CM also proposed a twin project for Ludhiana and Amritsar whereby LED lights and safe city features could be linked on one pole. The Deputy CM made this suggestion to Korea Telecom when the company disclosed that it would run its proposed LED lights through network. This, it said, would also allow installation of safe city features like CCTV cameras and license plate recognition systems on the same poles. Sukhbir also visited Maeil Dairies, one of the largest milk producing units in South Korea, and said Punjab could upgrade its milk producing cooperative Milkfed and its Verka milk plants by using technology and best practices perfected by Maeil Dairy.
