NEW DELHI – Navi Mumbai has been declared India’s cleanest city in the Centre’s annual Swachh Survekshan 2025-26 rankings, ending Indore’s eight-year run at the top. Surat in Gujarat took second place, while Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh came third.
The results were announced on Wednesday at an awards ceremony in New Delhi, where President Droupadi Murmu presented the honours to the winning cities. Conducted under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, the survey assessed more than 4,700 urban local bodies across the country.
Navi Mumbai topped the Super Swachh League, a category for cities that have consistently ranked among the best in earlier editions. It had finished third last year, behind Indore and Surat. Officials of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation credited the result to sustained work on waste management, door-to-door collection, citizen participation and strict enforcement of sanitation rules.
Indore, which had held the title for eight straight years, did not make the top three this time. It was recognised in a separate mentor category, “Swachh Shehar Jodi”, along with its partner town Depalpur.
Lucknow ranks third among big cities
Uttar Pradesh’s capital, Lucknow, secured third place in the category of cities with a population of over 10 lakh. Greater Visakhapatnam took the top spot in this category, followed by Jabalpur in second place.
Other category winners
- Cities with over 10 lakh population: Greater Visakhapatnam ranked first, followed by Jabalpur and Lucknow.
- Cities with 3 lakh to 10 lakh population: Ujjain topped the list, with Chandigarh second and Guntur third.
- Riverfront towns: Rewa in Madhya Pradesh came first, followed by Bilaspur and Varanasi.
- Coastal towns: Puri led, ahead of Alappuzha and Ratnagiri.
- Himalayan cities: Rudrapur was named the cleanest.
This year’s survey gave greater weight to citizen feedback, with crores of residents responding. It also looked closely at the cleanliness of tourist and heritage sites, urban riverfronts, coastlines and water bodies, the prevention of open defecation and urination, and behaviour-change campaigns.
The Swachh Survekshan remains the flagship cleanliness assessment under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban, aimed at improving sanitation, waste management and hygiene in Indian cities.
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