Navi Mumbai emerged as India’s cleanest city , followed by Surat and Vijayawada, in the National Clean City category of the Centre’s Swachh Survekshan Awards 2025-26 announced on Wednesday.
President Droupadi Murmu conferred the awards, the survey’s 10th edition, at a ceremony at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi. This year it was assessed as a mentor city under the Swachh Shehar Jodi (mentor-mentee city) initiative. Indore and Depalpur came second, and Tirupati and Kuppam third.
Indore, which topped every edition from 2017 to 2023, the last jointly with Surat , according to the housing and urban affairs ministry’s toolkit for the survey, moved into the Super Swachh League in 2024-25 and was not in the main rankings. Under the survey’s rules, the league is made up of cities that finished in the top three of their population category in at least three of the 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 editions. League cities are assessed on additional indicators and are not ranked against one another, and they must score at least 85% to stay in, according to the toolkit. Ahmedabad , which won the 2024-25 survey, topped the Jodi category, which is new this year, with its partner Sanand. Under the initiative, 70 mentor cities have been paired with 191 mentee cities to facilitate knowledge-sharing and improve sanitation services. The Jodi awards are based on the combined scores of the mentor city, which was a Swachh Survekshan 2024-25 awardee, and its paired mentee city. Union housing and urban affairs minister Manohar Lal , who attended the ceremony with minister of state Tokhan Sahu, said urban waste processing had risen from 16% in 2014 to 80%, and door-to-door collection coverage from 44% to more than 96%. Remediation of legacy dumpsites had freed nearly 11,000 acres of urban land for productive use, he said.
Syad Javed Ali Warsi, an Indore-based solid waste management consultant and former adviser to the Swachh Bharat Mission , said Indore had provided technical, operational and on-ground support to Depalpur, including treating its legacy waste and introducing the four-bin waste segregation system and waste processing. An Indore Municipal Corporation team had also provided in-person assistance to improve the town’s waste management systems, he said.
He also urged states to run their own cleanliness rankings to encourage competition among urban local bodies, particularly smaller towns. The ministry is expected to release detailed rankings and assessment parameters in the coming days, including the position of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi . State-level award ceremonies will also be held. Shinde credited citizens, civic employees, sanitation workers and people’s representatives for the achievement. The detailed ranking list of all urban local bodies is still awaited.”
The minister highlighted the government’s PRAGATI-50 initiative to develop 50 cities as model clean cities through technology-driven interventions and continuous monitoring. Earlier reporting noted: Navi Mumbai climbs two spots, bags cleanest city tag for 2025-26 The award was presented in Delhi by President Droupadi Murmu Earlier reporting noted: President Droupadi Murmu presented the award to Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation commissioner (NMMC) Kailas Shinde, Navi Mumbai mayor Sujata Patil and deputy mayor Dashrath Bhagat in Delhi on Wednesday.
“Our slogan of finishing top podium in the nationwide competition turned true after years of hard work,” he said. A BMC official said, “The award ceremony was held with only the awardees in attendance.
Earlier reporting noted: The ranking for Mumbai city was not made public. Last year, it was in the 33rd spot.
