Swachh Survekshan 2025-26: Navi Mumbai is cleanest, Surat and Vijayawada next, Indore out

Indore was not shut out of the ceremony. In the new Swachh Shehar Jodi category, which recognises better-performing cities that mentor others, the city, paired with Depalpur, was among the three leading pairs. The three leading pairs were Ahmedabad with Sanand, Indore with Depalpur, and Tirupati with Kuppam. The pairing programme was launched by the housing minister, Manohar Lal, on 27 September 2025, and links 70 mentor cities with 191 mentee cities in 33 states and union territories.

The new order changes the top of the table from the last edition. In the awards for 2024-25, announced in July 2025, reports had Indore first, Surat second and Navi Mumbai third, though accounts of that edition differed on some details. On those reports Navi Mumbai moves up two places, Surat keeps second, and Vijayawada enters the top three. For cities that slipped, the published scores will show where they fell.

The winners by population and by type of city

Cities are also ranked within groups so that a small town is not judged against a metropolis. The ministry named three winners in each of the groups below.

The riverfront, coastal and Himalayan categories reflect a wider coverage of urban river fronts, coastlines and water bodies in this edition, which the ministry listed among its changes along with more weight for citizen feedback, indicators on open defecation and open urination, the cleanliness of tourist and heritage sites, and behaviour-change work in schools. The survey rated cities on 43 indicators in 10 areas, using more than 3,000 trained assessors with GPS-based monitoring.

Chhattisgarh's cities were also recognised: Raipur, Bilaspur and Bilha were selected for national awards before the ceremony, officials in the state said.

What the President asked of cities and citizens

President Murmu used the ceremony to say that cleanliness is not only about how public spaces look. It reflects public health, social consciousness and administrative accountability, she said, and a clean India needs every citizen and community to take part. She asked that cleanliness show up in everyday habits, including at home.

She called for more participation from young people, women, resident welfare associations and community organisations, who she said should report shortcomings to municipal authorities. Citizen feedback, in her words, should not be limited to surveys and rankings and should help improve municipal services. She also pointed to the need for affordable, safe and effective sanitation technology, noting that the Indian Institutes of Technology and other research institutions are working on it, and she urged special attention to Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, which face distinct problems in urban sanitation.

The ministry's earlier figures show where the work lies. For the mentee cities in Swachh Shehar Jodi, cumulative scores rose between the 2024 survey and this one in every area it tracks: visible cleanliness from 48% to 70%, door-to-door collection from 52% to 74%, source segregation from 16% to 30%, access to sanitation from 11% to 38%, and used water management from 32% to 53%. Segregation of waste at the source is still the weakest, at 30%. Those are the ministry's own numbers and cover only the mentee cities.

The full list of cities and their scores is the useful document for residents, because it shows which areas pulled a place down. The ministry's Swachh Survekshan website and the Press Information Bureau carry the official tables. Until the scores are published, the reasons behind individual rises and falls, including Indore's, remain unexplained.