Navi Mumbai takes India’s cleanest city title as Indore’s eight-year run ends: See winners list

Navi Mumbai has been declared India’s cleanest city in the Swachh Survekshan 2025-26 rankings, bringing Indore’s eight-year winning streak to an end. Surat secured the second position, while Vijayawada finished third in the latest edition of the Centre’s annual cleanliness survey.

President Droupadi Murmu presented the awards to the winners at a ceremony attended by representatives of urban local bodies. More than 4,700 urban local bodies participated in this year’s assessment.

Indore, which had topped the national rankings for eight consecutive years, featured in a separate category introduced this year. It secured the second position in the Mentor City category alongside Depalpur, its partner town.

The newly introduced ‘Swachh Shehar Jodi’ initiative recognises partnerships between better-performing cities and towns that receive guidance to improve their cleanliness standards.

Ahmedabad and its partner town Sanand secured the first position in this category, followed by Indore and Depalpur. Tirupati and its partner town Kuppam finished third.

According to the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry, the initiative has helped improve cleanliness indicators in participating mentee cities.

Visible cleanliness scores increased from 48% in 2024-25 to 70% in 2025-26. Door-to-door waste collection improved from 52% to 74%, while source segregation rose from 16% to 30%.

Greater Visakhapatnam emerged as the cleanest city among urban centres with populations exceeding 10 lakh. Ujjain topped the category for cities with populations between three lakh and 10 lakh.

Among smaller cities, Dewas secured the first position in the 50,000 to three lakh population category, followed by the New Delhi Municipal Council and Sagar. Maharashtra’s Vita topped the 20,000 to 50,000 population category, with Aska in Odisha and Panaji in Goa taking the next two positions.

Rewa in Madhya Pradesh was named the cleanest riverfront town, followed by Bilaspur and Varanasi. Puri topped the coastal town category, while Alappuzha and Ratnagiri secured the second and third positions.

Rudrapur was recognised as the cleanest Himalayan city, followed by Jammu and Shopian.

This year’s survey was conducted under the theme ‘Swachhata Ki Nayi Pehel – Badhayein Haath, Karein Safai Saath’.

The ministry said more than 3,000 trained assessors carried out on-ground inspections, supported by GPS-enabled monitoring. The assessment process, including evidence submission and verification, was conducted digitally with quality checks at different stages.