For eight consecutive years, Indore held the distinction of being India’s cleanest city. However, the Madhya Pradesh city has now lost its position at the top, with Maharashtra’s Navi Mumbai emerging as the country’s cleanest urban centre in the latest edition of the Centre’s annual cleanliness survey.
Navi Mumbai secured the top position in the Swachh Survekshan Awards 2025-26, followed by Gujarat’s Surat and Andhra Pradesh’s Vijayawada in second and third place, respectively.
The results were announced at a ceremony in New Delhi on Wednesday, November 11, where President presented the awards to the winning cities.
The 10th edition of the annual survey assessed cleanliness, sanitation and waste management across urban local bodies, with more than 4,700 cities and urban local bodies participating, according to The New Indian Express.
Indore’s absence from the overall top rankings does not necessarily indicate a decline in its cleanliness performance.
The city competed in a separate category this year under the newly introduced ‘Swachh Shehar Jodi’ initiative, which focuses on mentorship between cities.
secured the second position in the Mentor City category alongside its partner town, Depalpur.
Ahmedabad and its partner town Sanand claimed the top position, while Tirupati and Kuppam finished third.
The new category recognises cities that mentor other urban centres in improving sanitation and cleanliness practices.
Apart from the overall rankings, the Swachh Survekshan 2025-26 recognised cities across population groups and geographical categories.
In the category of cities with populations exceeding 10 lakh, Greater Visakhapatnam emerged as the cleanest, followed by Jabalpur and Lucknow.
Among cities with populations between 3 lakh and 10 lakh, secured the first position. Chandigarh and Guntur finished second and third, respectively.
In the 50,000-3 lakh population category, Madhya Pradesh’s Dewas was ranked first, followed by the New Delhi Municipal Council () and Sagar.
For cities with populations between 20,000 and 50,000, Maharashtra’s Vita secured the top position, while Aska in and Panaji in Goa finished second and third, respectively.
The survey also recognised cities based on their geographical characteristics and specific urban sanitation challenges.
Madhya Pradesh’s was declared the cleanest riverfront town, while Uttarakhand’s Rudrapur emerged as the cleanest Himalayan city.
In the Swachh Coastal Town category, Odisha’s Puri secured the first position, followed by Alappuzha in and Ratnagiri in Maharashtra.
The Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry said cities participating in the mentorship programme recorded significant improvements across several cleanliness indicators between the 2024-25 and 2025-26 surveys.
According to the ministry, visible in these cities improved from 48% to 70%, while door-to-door waste collection increased from 52% to 74%.
Source segregation also recorded an improvement, rising from 16% to 30%. Access to sanitation increased from 11% to 38%, while used water management improved from 32% to 53%.
Advocacy and awareness around cleanliness also witnessed an increase, moving from 48% to 66%.
The ministry attributed these gains to the progress made under the city mentorship programme, which aims to help urban local bodies adopt better sanitation and waste management practices.
This year’s Swachh Survekshan was conducted under the theme ‘Ki Nayi Pehel – Badhayein Haath, Karein Safai Saath’.
The assessment involved more than 3,000 trained assessors who conducted extensive on-ground evaluations across the country. The process was supported by real-time GPS-enabled monitoring.
According to the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry, the assessment was conducted digitally, from evidence submission to verification, with transparency and quality checks incorporated at different stages.
The annual survey evaluates urban local bodies on several parameters, including cleanliness, sanitation, waste collection, source segregation and the management of used water.
With inputs from PTI.
