Navi Mumbai has emerged as India’s cleanest city, ending Indore’s long run at the top of the national cleanliness rankings. In the latest Swachh Survekshan 2025-26, Surat and Vijayawada secured the second and third spots, respectively, while Rewa was named the cleanest riverfront town and Rudrapur the cleanest Himalayan city. Among cities with a population exceeding 10 lakh, Greater Visakhapatnam topped the category, while Ujjain led the rankings among cities with populations between 3 lakh and 10 lakh.
While Surat and Vijayawada secured the next two spots, Rewa emerged as the cleanest riverfront town, and Rudrapur topped the Himalayan city category.
This year, Indore, which had been ranked the cleanest city for the past eight consecutive years, was placed in a different category, securing the second position in the Mentor City category along with its partner town, Depalpur, under the newly introduced ‘Swachh Shehar Jodi’ initiative. President Droupadi Murmu gave the awards to the winners at an event held here. Over 4,700 urban local bodies participated in the survey. The ministry said that more than 3,000 trained assessors conducted extensive on-ground evaluations across the country, supported by real-time GPS-enabled monitoring. The HUA Ministry said that the performance of mentee cities has witnessed significant improvement across key Swachhata indicators between Swachh Survekshan 2024-25 and 2025-26. In the ‘Visible Cleanliness’ parameter, mentee cities have moved from 48 per cent in the previous year to 70 per cent in the latest edition.
In the Swachh Coastal Town category, Puri bagged the first position, followed by Kerala’s Alappuzha and Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri, according to the Union Housing and Urban Affairs (HUA) Ministry. From evidence submission to verification, the assessment process remained fully digital, transparent, and subject to rigorous quality checks at every stage, it said.
