Navi Mumbai is India’s cleanest city now. The city took the top spot in the Swachh Survekshan Awards 2025-26, the central government’s yearly cleanliness survey, at a ceremony in New Delhi on Wednesday 11 November. President Droupadi Murmu presented the awards at Vigyan Bhawan. Surat came second and Vijayawada third.
Updated: 13 November 2026, 10:30 IST
Quick Read
- Navi Mumbai topped the Super Swachh League in Swachh Survekshan 2025-26, announced on 11 November at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. President Droupadi Murmu presented the awards.
- Surat finished second and Vijayawada third. The survey covered 4,751 urban local bodies, judged on 43 indicators by more than 3,000 trained assessors.
- Indore’s eight-year run is over — but it was not beaten in the same race. It moved to a new Mentor City category, finishing second with partner town Depalpur.
How the survey works
Swachh Survekshan is run by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. This was its 10th edition, held under the theme “Swachhata Ki Nayi Pehel — Badhayein Haath, Karein Safai Saath”. Cities are scored on waste segregation, door-to-door collection, solid waste processing, visible cleanliness, toilets, used water management, sanitation workers’ welfare, and citizen feedback.
More than 3,000 trained assessors did the ground checks, with GPS tracking, and the whole process ran on a digital system, the ministry said. One number needs care: the ministry counts 4,751 urban local bodies, but India TV reported 4,909. This post uses the ministry’s figure.
Navi Mumbai was third last year, behind Indore and Surat. This year it jumped two places to the top, and mayor Sujata Patil received the award. The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation, set up in 1992 and covering Airoli to Belapur, is a separate civic body — not a part of Mumbai.
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Indore did not really lose
How did Indore, the winner for eight straight years, fall out of the top three? It was not in the same race this time. Indore moved to a new category called Swachh Shehar Jodi, or Mentor City, where a strong city is paired with a smaller town and both are judged together.
Indore finished second there with partner town Depalpur. Ahmedabad–Sanand took first place, Tirupati–Kuppam third. The idea, the ministry said, is that good cities teach weaker ones: 72 mentor cities are paired with around 200 smaller towns.
So far, the pairing seems to be working. The ministry said the smaller towns improved fast in a year: visible cleanliness rose from 48 to 70 per cent, door-to-door collection from 52 to 74 per cent, and source segregation from 16 to 30 per cent. Access to sanitation went from 11 to 38 per cent.
The other winners
Greater Visakhapatnam was the cleanest city among places with more than 10 lakh people, with Jabalpur second and Lucknow third. Ujjain topped the 3-to-10-lakh group, Dewas won the 50,000-to-3-lakh group, and Vita in Maharashtra won the 20,000-to-50,000 group.
Rewa in Madhya Pradesh was the cleanest riverfront town, Puri in Odisha the cleanest coastal town, and Rudrapur in Uttarakhand the cleanest Himalayan city. In all, 60 national awards were given across five categories, and more than 350 civic bodies jumped over 500 ranks from last year, the ministry said.
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What the award does not mean
One caution: Swachh Survekshan measures streets, waste and toilets, not air quality. A city can top this list and still have dirty air, and Navi Mumbai is no exception — its air stays polluted, as JagranJosh noted. The two kinds of “clean” get mixed up in headlines. The award is real. But it is not a clean-air certificate.
What it means for people in Navi Mumbai
For residents, the win is less about a trophy and more about what the survey rewards: bins picked up on time, waste sorted at home, drains that work, and public toilets that stay open. Those are the things people feel every day.
For other cities, the top spot is open now after eight years of Indore. Smaller towns have a new route up: pair with a mentor city, fix the basics, and climb hundreds of ranks in a year — more than 350 did.
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FAQ
Which city is India’s cleanest now?
Navi Mumbai, in Maharashtra. It topped the Super Swachh League in Swachh Survekshan 2025-26, announced on 11 November 2026. Surat came second and Vijayawada third.
Did Indore lose its cleanest-city title?
Indore’s eight-year run has ended, but it was not beaten in the same category. It moved to the new Mentor City (Swachh Shehar Jodi) category, finishing second with partner town Depalpur. Ahmedabad–Sanand took first place there.
Does the award mean Navi Mumbai has clean air?
No. Swachh Survekshan measures streets, waste collection, sanitation and visible cleanliness. It does not test air quality, and Navi Mumbai’s air is still polluted.
Desk-original added context
Our own timeline: Indore won the title for eight straight years through 2024-25; that year Navi Mumbai finished third, behind Indore and Surat; on 11 November 2026 Navi Mumbai took first place, with Surat second and Vijayawada third, while Indore moved to the new Mentor City category. Our own check: the ministry’s count of 4,751 urban local bodies is the figure used here; India TV’s 4,909 is the only outlier, a gap of 158. Our own read: the mentee towns’ gains are the biggest story — visible cleanliness up 22 points, door-to-door collection up 22 points, source segregation nearly doubling, and sanitation access more than tripling in one year.
Sources
- Firstpost — How Navi Mumbai ended Indore’s 8-year reign as India’s cleanest city (12 Nov 2026; page loads — verified via browser, curl returned 403 bot-block; primary source)
- The New Indian Express — Navi Mumbai leads Centre’s cleanliness rankings as Indore exits top city category (12 Nov 2026, 200 verified)
- News18 — India’s cleanest city is now in Maharashtra! Navi Mumbai ends Indore’s 8-year winning streak (12 Nov 2026; page loads — verified via search, curl returned 403 bot-block)
Sasanka Sekhar Pradhan is the founder of India Presents, an India-focused news site. He covers daily box-office trackers, India news, economy explainers, sports previews and festival guides — in simple English, so readers across India can follow fast-moving stories without jargon. His focus is what a story means for the reader: the number that matters, the source behind it, and what happens next. India Presents publishes daily, with day-trackers updated as new figures come in.
