Navi Mumbai wins India's Cleanest City award over Indore

President Droupadi Murmu presented the cleanest city award to Navi Mumbai's Mayor, Sujata Patil, at the 10th Swachh Survekshan Awards in New Delhi on 11 November 2026.

This victory ended a streak where Indore held the top spot for eight consecutive years. Navi Mumbai ranked first in the Super Swachh League among 4,751 cities, placing ahead of Surat and Vijayawada. The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) achieved this result through a combination of technology and community involvement.

The city uses an Integrated Command and Control Centre to track garbage vehicles via GPS and provides a mobile app and portal for residents to report issues. The NMMC also operates a bio-CNG plant to convert wet waste into fuel for city buses and maintains a Textile Recovery Facility at Belapur. The corporation attributes its success to three to four years of sustained effort under the motto Nischay Kela, Number Pahila.

In contrast, the neighboring city of Mumbai ranked among the 10 lowest-scoring cities with populations over 10 lakh in the 2024-25 survey. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) manages over 6,500 tonnes of waste daily but struggles with limited public participation and a lack of 100% waste segregation. While Navi Mumbai uses tertiary treated water to suppress dust at construction sites, Mumbai faces high levels of construction dust from approximately 3,200 active sites.