Navi Mumbai has seized the title of India's cleanest city, snapping years of established hierarchy in the Union government's flagship urban sanitation sweepstakes.
President Droupadi Murmu presented the national honours on Wednesday at a ceremony in New Delhi, concluding the Swachh Survekshan 2025-2026 assessment that evaluated more than 4,700 urban local bodies. Gujarat's industrial hub Surat took second place. Andhra Pradesh's commercial centre Vijayawada clinched third. The verdict redrew the national sanitation leaderboard. Indore was not on the primary podium. After sweeping the top rank for eight straight years, the Madhya Pradesh powerhouse moved out of the general competition entirely.
The Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry shifted Indore into the freshly introduced 'Swachh Shehar Jodi' Mentor City bracket, pairing veteran municipal achievers with smaller, struggling neighbours. Indore partnered with the neighbouring town of Depalpur, securing second place in the category.
Gujarat's Ahmedabad and its partner town Sanand captured first place in the mentor initiative, while Andhra Pradesh's Tirupati teamed with Kuppam to claim third.
The policy pivot aimed to end single-city monopolies while compelling mature municipal corporations to export operational sanitation know-how into peri-urban belts. Officials deployed more than 3,000 trained assessors across the country under the survey theme 'Swachhata Ki Nayi Pehel – Badhayein Haath, Karein Safai Saath'. Assessors executed field inspections backed by real-time GPS tracking and end-to-end digital verification.
In the category reserved for large metropolises with populations exceeding 10 lakh, Greater Visakhapatnam secured the premier rank. Jabalpur finished second, while Uttar Pradesh's capital Lucknow claimed third.
Smaller cities showed fierce competition.
Ujjain led the 3-to-10 lakh population category, with Chandigarh finishing second and Guntur landing third. In the 50,000 to 3 lakh demographic, Madhya Pradesh's Dewas took top billing, holding off the New Delhi Municipal Council in second and Sagar in third. Maharashtra's Vita swept the 20,000 to 50,000 category, followed by Aska in Odisha and Goa's capital Panaji.
Specialized geographical categories rewarded riverine, coastal, and high-altitude topographies:
| Category | First Place | Second Place | Third Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Cleanest City | Navi Mumbai | Surat | Vijayawada |
| Mentor City Pairing | Ahmedabad & Sanand | Indore & Depalpur | Tirupati & Kuppam |
| Population Above 10 Lakh | Greater Visakhapatnam | Jabalpur | Lucknow |
| Population 3 to 10 Lakh |
Rewa in Madhya Pradesh topped the riverfront town segment ahead of Bilaspur and Varanasi, while Odisha's pilgrimage hub Puri took top honours among coastal towns over Alappuzha and Ratnagiri. Uttarakhand's Rudrapur claimed the Himalayan urban crown, leading Jammu and Shopian.
Performance metrics tracked by the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry demonstrated immediate structural gains inside the towns paired with senior municipal mentors between the 2024-25 and 2025-26 survey cycles. Visible cleanliness across mentee urban bodies leaped from 48 per cent to 70 per cent. Door-to-door waste collection rose from 52 per cent to 74 per cent.
The numbers confirmed substantial civic turnarounds across previously lagging local administrations.
Mentee cities have also achieved notable improvements across key parameters such as: Source Segregation (from 16 to 30 per cent), Access to Sanitation (from 11 to 38 per cent), Used Water Management (from 32 to 53 per cent), and Advocacy for Swachhata (from 48 to 66 per cent), reflecting strengthened sanitation systems and improved service delivery outcomes through dedicated mentorship from high-performing cities.
Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry
Following the New Delhi awards distribution, state urban development directorates and participating local bodies must now integrate digital tracking protocols and used-water infrastructure benchmarks ahead of the next national survey verification cycle.
| Ujjain |
| Chandigarh |
| Guntur |
| Riverfront Towns | Rewa | Bilaspur | Varanasi |
| Coastal Towns | Puri | Alappuzha | Ratnagiri |
| Himalayan Cities | Rudrapur | Jammu | Shopian |