Ahmedabad was Thursday named the cleanest big city in the country in the Swachh Survekshan 2024-25 awards, followed by Bhopal and Lucknow. President Droupadi Murmu presented the award to Ahmedabad for being the top city among those with a population of 10 lakh or above during the awards ceremony in New Delhi.
This year, the awards included a separate category of recognition for cities that had been in the top three of their categories in the previous three years. This new category, Super Swachh League Cities, included the previous winners Indore, Surat and Navi Mumbai. Last year, Indore and Surat were jointly recognised as the cleanest cities, with Indore maintaining its top position for the seventh consecutive time.
In the category of cities with a population of 3 lakh to 10 lakh, Mira Bhayandar got the top spot, followed by Bilaspur and Jamshedpur in second and third place, respectively.
The awards, instituted under the Swachh Bharat Mission under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, were started in 2016 with 73 cities. This year, 4,589 cities were covered in the survey that was held from April 2024 to March 2025.
As per a government release, this year, the awards were presented across four categories: Super Swachh League Cities; top three clean cities in five population categories; Special category: Ganga Towns, Cantonment Boards, SafaiMitra Suraksha, Mahakumbh; and state level awards – promising clean city of state/UT.
It also said that for the first time ever, cities were classified into five population-based categories: very small cities: 10 lakh population.
Speaking at the event, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal said the ministry will launch a special one-year campaign to remediate legacy landfills on August 15.