India's cleanest city is not Indore! The 2026 rankings reveal a surprising twist

Cleanliness shakeup

India has a new cleanest city, and it isn't Indore! Navi Mumbai has secured the top position in the National Clean City category of Swachh Survekshan 2025–26, followed by Surat in second place and Vijayawada in third. President Droupadi Murmu presented the awards in New Delhi on November 11. But there's an interesting twist behind the rankings: Indore, which dominated the cleanliness awards for years, wasn't competing in the same category this time.

Indore twist

Eight years of cleanliness dominance, yet Indore is missing from the latest top-three list! The Madhya Pradesh city, known for its consistent performance in the Swachh Survekshan rankings, was assessed separately under the Super Swachh League and the new Swachh Shehar Jodi initiative. In the mentor-city category, Indore and its partner Depalpur secured second place, behind Ahmedabad and Sanand. So did Indore actually lose its cleanliness crown, or did a change in the competition explain its absence?

City surprises

Lucknow makes the top three, but Delhi's main ranking remains a mystery! In the category for cities with more than 10 lakh residents, Greater Visakhapatnam secured first place, followed by Jabalpur and Lucknow. Among cities with populations between 3 lakh and 10 lakh, Ujjain topped the rankings, ahead of Chandigarh and Guntur. Meanwhile, the New Delhi Municipal Council area secured second place in the 50,000–3 lakh population category. With separate rankings for different population groups, the survey reveals a far more complicated picture of India's cleanest cities.

Massive inspection

More than 4,700 cities, 43 indicators and 2.7 crore citizens participating! India's latest cleanliness survey went far beyond checking whether roads and markets looked clean. The 10th edition of Swachh Survekshan assessed waste segregation, collection, processing, sanitation facilities, wastewater management and the welfare of sanitation workers. More than 3,000 assessors carried out evaluations using digital verification and GPS-enabled monitoring. With cities competing across multiple categories, what does it really take to earn India's cleanest-city title?