By Khyati Agrawal Gupta (Author, Columnist & Behaviour Writer)
I remember recently reading that Lucknow had been ranked No. 1 by the Swachh Vayu Survekshan. I immediately looked up at the sky through my window, with one thought nagging at me: ‘Is this truly the cleanest air in India?’
Under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), the Swachh Vayu Survekshan annually assesses cities on pollution-control measures & city-specific Clean Air Action Plans, rather than simply ranking them by daily AQI. This 200-mark framework covers 130 cities, divided into three categories based on population: below 3 lakh, 3-10 lakh & above 10 lakh, assessed on 8 parameters like biomass & municipal solid-waste burning, road dust, construction & demolition dust, vehicular emissions, industrial emissions, other emissions, public awareness, improvement in PM10 – which, surprisingly, is only 5 marks. The remaining 195 marks are for what a city is doing to control pollution sources.
Lucknow wasn’t rewarded because its air was the cleanest. It was rewarded for what it did to make the air cleaner. In the past, Lucknow’s position has oscillated considerably- from 24th in 2023 to up at 4th in 2024, down to 15th in 2025 & now right at the top in 2026.
How did this happen? The trick was to not try to fight air pollution with one big solution. Lucknow went after several everyday sources – waste burning, road dust, vehicles, construction & the lack of green cover.
Lucknow is using 1,100 electric vehicles for its waste collection. By March 2025, the door-to-door collection & segregation coverage had doubled to 7.01 lakh establishments & households. Today its waste-processing capacity has reached around 2,550 tonnes per day, with the civic body reporting scientific processing of fresh municipal waste & an end to fresh dumping. Compact transfer stations have brought waste-collection trips down to 150 per day, reducing the movement of collection vehicles.
Road dust has been tackled by employing 97 electric mechanised sweepers to clean the roads & by paving 559.85 km, keeping loose dust from entering the city’s lungs. To counter the expanding Lucknow’s construction & demolition dust the city looks at its 300-tonne-per-day processing plant & dedicated C&D waste collection centres. In transport, Lucknow is moving away from diesel, with 12 EV charging stations & 916 charging points supporting 140 electric buses.
Big investment has been made in green cover including Miyawaki forests, vertical gardens, green corridors & about 95,000 trees. Perhaps the most technologically advanced action of all is the 149 low-cost air-quality sensors that are being deployed all over the city to provide real-time pollution readings & identify hotspots.
So, how far have we come? The most convincing number is perhaps not the 198/200 score itself, but that Lucknow’s annual average PM10 concentration fell from 253 µg/m³ in 2017-18 to 135 µg/m³ in 2025-26, a 46.64% reduction. While an admirable feat in itself, Lucknow’s current level is still more than twice the national annual standard PM10 of 60 µg/m³.
What could derail the progress? The upcoming winter’s weak winds & stagnant air can trap pollutants close to the ground. Crop-residue burning & other pollution across the wider Indo-Gangetic region can also travel into the city, particularly during October & November. Rapid urban expansion, construction, roadwork, rising vehicle numbers & congestion could put pressure on the gains from cleaner transport. Open waste burning, poor segregation, littering & careless dumping can undermine these efforts, especially if the city begins treating the No. 1 ranking as an endpoint.
Here is the uncomfortable truth: we have become so accustomed to poor air that a 46.64% improvement can feel like the destination. The reality is: yes, Lucknow has come a long way, but its PM10 levels are still more than twice the acceptable national standard. While we celebrate the progress, we need to keep the momentum going & make that standard the destination. Government action will remain crucial, but so will our own civic sense: how we dispose of waste, what we burn, how we treat public spaces & how seriously we take the pollution we create ourselves.
