On May 29, 2024, the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry unveiled PRAGATI‑50, a clean‑city drive that will transform 50 municipalities across 24 states and the Union Territories.
The programme covers 76 municipal units, including the entire city of Delhi and the metros of Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune, Kolkata and Hyderabad. It aims to push each city to 100 % cleanliness across waste, water and sanitation.
The list—Tirupati, Gaya, Patna, Bilaspur, Ahmedabad, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Dharamsala, Srinagar, Ranchi, Mysore, Nashik, Puri, Ludhiana, Udaipur, Coimbatore, Warangal, Ayodhya, Mathura, Varanasi, Haridwar and Kolkata—spans cultural capitals, pilgrimage hubs and economic centres.
Minister Manohar Lal said the cities would serve as role models by exceeding routine sanitation. He added he would chair bi‑monthly review meetings to monitor progress.
A resident in Patna told reporters that the new drive should curb the monthly piles of garbage that line the streets during the festival season, giving the initiative a human face.
The first review meeting is scheduled for August 15, 2024, with outcome‑based assessments to be published in September. States are urged to collaborate, and the Ministry will deploy technology‑enabled monitoring to track each city’s performance.