Navi Mumbai named India's cleanest city, ending Indore's eight-year run

Navi Mumbai has been named India's cleanest city in the Swachh Survekshan 2025-26 awards, ending Indore's eight-year run at the top. In the Super Swachh League, the category for cities that have placed among the top three in earlier years, Navi Mumbai finished first, followed by Surat and Vijayawada. The results were announced on Wednesday (11 November).

President Droupadi Murmu gave out the awards at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, at an event organised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation's commissioner Kailas Shinde and mayor Sujata Patil received the award for the city, the Times of India reported. Shinde credited citizens, civic staff and elected representatives.

Indore had topped the league last year, with Surat second and Navi Mumbai third, The Hindu reported. This year Indore did not make the top three. It did place second, with its mentee town Depalpur, in the new Swachh Shehar Jodi category, which ranks a top city and the smaller town it is helping. Ahmedabad and Sanand came first there, and Tirupati and Kuppam third.

Other winners were announced in separate population categories. Visakhapatnam was named the cleanest city among those with over 10 lakh people, ahead of Jabalpur and Lucknow, according to the Indian Express. Ujjain led the 3 lakh to 10 lakh group, and Dewas the 50,000 to 3 lakh group. Awards were also given for the first time for riverfront towns (Rewa), coastal towns (Puri) and Himalayan cities (Rudrapur). Over 4,751 cities took part in the 10th edition of the survey, The Hindu reported.

The Times of India reported that activist Sudhir Dani disputed the award, alleging that Navi Mumbai is not as clean as the civic administration projects. The civic body says it maintains cleanliness through strict enforcement of solid waste rules, regular cleaning of roads and skywalks, citizen feedback through the Swachhata app and targeted sanitation in busy public areas.