E-Paper
Which city took the clean-air crown? Delhi, Mumbai rankings revealed. Noida makes it to Top 10
Indore, which scored a perfect 200 out of 200 and topped the survey in 2025, scored 197 points this year.
Prefer HTon Google
Lucknow is the cleanest city in India at the moment, according to the Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan 2026. It scored 198 points among cities with a population of over 10 lakh.
Delhi scored 172 points to rank 21st, while Mumbai scored 160.8 points and stood at 28th in the category. The survey ranks cities in three population-based categories: more than 10 lakh, 3 lakh to 10 lakh, and less than 3 lakh.
Noida ranked 8th in the 3-10 lakh population category while Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata stood at 32nd, 35th and 38th, respectively, in the Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan 2026.
Indore, which scored a perfect 200 out of 200 and topped the survey in 2025, scored 197 points this year and slipped to the second spot. Jabalpur ranked third with 195 points, while Bhopal and Agra shared fourth place with 192 points each.
ALSO READ | India's cleanest Indore loses top spot by 1 point to this UP city in clean air survey
Category I: Top 10 cleanest cities with population over 10 lakh
Lucknow emerged as the top-ranked city in the largest population category.
- Lucknow
- Indore
- Jabalpur
- Bhopal
- Agra
- Surat
- Raipur
- Thane
- Chandigarh
- Rajkot
ALSO READ | Noida improves to 8th in clean air survey among mid-sized cities
Category II: Top 10 cleanest cities with population over 3 lakh
- Rourkela
- Firozabad
- Guntur
- Amravati
- Bhubaneswar
- Jhansi
- Alwar
- Latur
- Moradabad
- Noida
Category III: Top 10 cleanest cities with population less than 3 lakh
- Kalinga Nagar
- Angul
- Talcher
- Eluru
- Haldia
- Vizianagaram
- Dewas
- Sangareddy
- Damtal
- Nalgonda
ALSO READ | Punjab: Cleanliness campaign 2.0 extended till September 12
PM10 remains a key challenge
PM10 refers to particulate matter with a diameter of 10 micrometres or less. These particles can come from vehicle emissions, road dust and industrial activity and can enter the respiratory system when inhaled.
Reducing PM10 levels is one of the key parameters assessed under the Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan framework.
According to Indore Municipal Corporation data, the city's annual average PM10 level this year was around 81 micrograms per cubic metre, a decline of more than 15% from previous years.
The figure remains above the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) annual limit of 60 micrograms per cubic metre for residential, industrial and rural areas. Municipal corporation data also showed that Indore's AQI remained below 200 on average on more than 98% of the days during the survey's evaluation period.
An AQI of 0-50 is classified as 'Good', 51-100 as 'Satisfactory', 101-200 as 'Moderate', 201-300 as 'Poor', 301-400 as 'Very Poor' and 401-500 as 'Severe'.
Indore to step up anti-pollution measures
Indore Mayor Pushyamitra Bhargava told PTI on Tuesday, "We scored one point lower than Lucknow in the survey due to (the city) lagging behind in PM10 particle standards." Indore has one of the highest vehicle densities in Madhya Pradesh.
These include expanding public awareness campaigns such as "Red Light On, Engine Off" to promote electric vehicles and increasing the operation of e-buses.
The municipal corporation also plans to convert vehicles used for door-to-door garbage collection to electric vehicles and encourage industries to shift from diesel to cleaner fuels such as CNG. Officials said around 700 km of roads are swept daily using machines to control road dust, while measures are also being taken to manage construction waste.
