Shillong, Mar 17: Urban Affairs Minister, S. Dhar on Thursday released two vehicles of the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) namely, Jatayu Litter Picking Machine and Truck Mounted Road Sweeping Machine, at the premises of the Shillong Municipal Board. It may be mentioned that with the objective to reduce manual handling of garbage by the municipal workers, the Shillong Municipal Board has procured the Litter Picking Machine from Green Assets for the purpose of mechanized picking of litter and garbage, especially from open dumps. The collection capacity of the machine is 1.5 cubic meters which will be roughly about one tonne of garbage and the machine was procured with funds from the 14th Finance Commission Award at a cost of Rs 41,20,481. The Truck Mounted Road Sweeping Machine’s collection capacity is 1.4 cubic meters which will be roughly about one tonne of garbage. The machine contains one centre brushing sweeping system, two side brushing sweeping systems, and one main broom with a sweeping width of 2000 mm. The machine was procured with funds from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs under the North Eastern Region Urban Development Programme at a cost of Rs 24,49,000.