In a major development, the North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) has developed a book sanitization machine to combat coronavirus infections through books, officials informed on Thursday.

A team of innovators the varsity's Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Basic Sciences and Social Sciences came up with device ''ABSCoM' that can sanitise up to 150 books in one cycle of about 45 minutes at a cost of 20 paise per book.

"This sanitising machine functions in an auto-controlled mode to sanitise all kinds of reading materials without causing any kind of damage to the material," Dr. Aseem Sinha was quoted saying in a PTI report, adding, "It is a composite machine using ultraviolet (UV) rays and heat technology to sanitise books".

NEHU Vice-Chancellor Prof SK Srivastava inaugurated the book sanitising machine at the central library of the university on Wednesday.

"The development of such a sanitizing machine was a fantastic fusion of library, a place to provide knowledge and the School of Technology, the place to convert that knowledge into the means for social benefit," Prof Srivastava was quoted by PTI.