Navi Mumbai Named India’s Cleanest City in Swachh Survekshan 2025-26 as Indore Exits Top Category

Navi Mumbai has officially been named India’s cleanest city in the Swachh Survekshan Awards 2025-26, bringing an end to Indore’s eight-year reign at the top of the national cleanliness rankings. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs released the results of the 10th edition of the annual national sanitation survey, placing Navi Mumbai at the top of the national list. For citizens checking whether Navi Mumbai is the cleanest city in India, the latest official survey confirms its first-place ranking, with Gujarat’s Surat securing second place and Andhra Pradesh’s Vijayawada taking third.

The change at the top of the leaderboard occurred after Indore was moved into a newly created “Mentor City” category for the 2025-26 evaluation cycle. Indore had won the top spot for eight consecutive years, dominating the annual survey since its early editions. By transitioning Indore into the Mentor City category, central authorities exited the Madhya Pradesh city from the standard city competition, clearing the path for Navi Mumbai to claim the top position after years of placing near the top of the national standings.

Shifting from Indore’s eight-year streak

Indore held continuous title rights as India’s cleanest city across eight consecutive survey rounds. The city either won the top award outright or shared the first position in joint announcements during its multi-year winning streak. For the 2025-26 survey, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs established the Mentor City classification to allow long-term top cities to share best sanitation practices with other municipal local bodies rather than competing directly against them.

With Indore competing under the Mentor City framework, Navi Mumbai moved up to take the premier spot in the 2025-26 national rankings. Surat, which previously shared top honors with Indore in the prior year’s assessment, took second place. Vijayawada secured third place, continuing its consistent run near the top of the national cleanliness survey.

Rating 4,700 cities across 43 indicators

The 10th edition of the Swachh Survekshan survey marked one of the largest urban sanitation assessments undertaken in the country. Official evaluators assessed more than 4,700 cities and urban local bodies nationwide. The survey measured municipal performance across 43 distinct indicators, including segregated household waste collection, daily waste processing capabilities, open-defecation-free urban status, remediation of legacy waste dumpsites, stormwater drain management, and sanitation maintenance in public facilities.

Public feedback formed a key component of the overall scoring system. More than 27 million citizens participated directly in the evaluation process, submitting ground-level feedback on municipal sanitation services, garbage collection frequency, and public toilet cleanliness. Independent survey teams verified citizen inputs through direct field inspections of residential sectors, commercial centers, public bus terminals, railway stations, and waste processing facilities across participating municipalities.

Category leaders from riverfronts to the Himalayas

The Swachh Survekshan 2025-26 results also announced winners across specialized geographical categories, highlighting cities managing specific environmental conditions along river systems and in mountainous regions.

In the cleanest riverfront town category, Rewa in Madhya Pradesh took first place. Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh secured second place, while Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh finished third. The riverfront category evaluates waste management controls, water body protection, and cleanliness standards along riverbanks and adjacent urban zones.

In high-altitude areas, Rudrapur in Uttarakhand won first place in the Himalayan city category. This category tracks municipal performance in mountainous regions where steep terrain and seasonal tourism present distinct waste collection and processing challenges for local administration.

With the 2025-26 rankings officially published by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, municipal corporations across the country are now reviewing their benchmark scores as Navi Mumbai assumes the top position in the national clean city rankings.

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Rohan Menon

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