South Korea on Monday expressed its willingness to provide technology as well as finance to build a smart city at New Chandigarh (Mullanpur) besides providing lED and safe-city solutions for ludhiana and Amritsar.
The offer was extended by Korea Telecom to a high level Punjab delegation led by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal on an official visit to the country, a press statement issued here said.
During his tour of Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) operational centre, Sukhbir has asked the Korea Telecom officials to submit a proposal for developing New Chandigarh as a smart city. He said that 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.
Sukhbir also proposed a twin project for ludhiana and Amritsar whereby lED lights and safe city features could be linked on one pole. His suggestion came after the Korea Telecom 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.
Korea Telecom director Ilhwan Park disclosed that his company already had a business model in place under which loan could be given to investors from the Exim bank in Korea. He said that the company was ready to consider other business models including consultancy as well as installing and running of smart cities and lED and safe city projects.
Giving detail of Songdo smart city which is part of the Incheon free economic zone, officials disclosed that 317 cameras installed in the city monitored air and water levels besides monitoring transport and giving real time information to people about accidents or traffic jams.
They said that besides this, all information about incoming vehicles was assessed to know if any vehicle had been involved in a crime.
Meanwhile, Sukhbir also visited Maeil Dairies, one of the largest milk producing units in South Korea. “Punjab could upgrade its milk producing cooperative Milkfed and its Verka milk plants by using technology and best practices perfected by Maeil Dairy,” he said.
Plants in line for upgradation include ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Bathinda, Patiala and Mohali milk plants.
Maeil Dairies managing director Oh Ik Chong disclosed that the dairy was producing 62 lakh litres of milk and processed around eight lakh liters. He said that the company owned 120 farms having 40,000 cows and also purchased milk from private producers.