Lucknow Secures Top Rank in 5th Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan Awards 2026

Lucknow has been named the top-performing city among those with a population above one million in the 5th Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan 2026, recognising its sustained efforts to control air pollution. The awards were announced during Swachh Vayu Diwas 2026, marked on the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies, at an event organised by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) in New Delhi.

Top 10 Performing Cities by Category in 5th Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan Awards 2026

Lucknow's win came on the back of key steps like adding electric vehicles to its municipal waste fleet, using mechanised sweeping machines to control road dust, and clearing legacy waste dumping sites. In contrast, Delhi ranked 30th and Mumbai 37th in the million-plus category, while cities like Chennai, Kolkata and Madurai featured among the bottom performers.

Category I: Top 10 cleanest cities with population over 10 lakh

Lucknow emerged as the top-ranked city in the largest population category.

1. Lucknow
2. Indore
3. Jabalpur
4. Bhopal
5. Agra
6. Surat
7. Raipur
8. Thane
9. Chandigarh
10. Rajkot

Category II: Top 10 cleanest cities with a population over 3 lakh

Rourkela ranked as the top-ranked city with a population over 3 lakh

1. Rourkela
2. Firozabad
3. Guntur
4. Amravati
5. Bhubaneswar
6. Jhansi
7. Alwar
8. Latur
9. Moradabad
10. Noida

Category III: Top 10 cleanest cities with a population less than 3 lakh

Kalinga Nagar ranked as the top-ranked city with a population less than 3 lakh

1. Kalinga Nagar
2. Angul
3. Talcher
4. Eluru
5. Haldia
6. Vizianagaram
7. Dewas
8. Sangareddy
9. Damtal
10. Nalgonda

About the 5th Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan Awards

The event was chaired by NGT Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava, who called clean air a basic necessity rather than a luxury and stressed that pollution control and development can go hand in hand. The Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan recognises cities working under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), a mission covering 130 cities across 24 states and UTs. Officials shared that a performance-linked grant of ₹16,425 crore has been released to these cities to help fund pollution control measures, and 108 of the 130 cities have already shown improvement in PM10 levels compared to 2017-18.

Evaluation Criteria of 5th Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan Awards

All 130 NCAP cities were assessed across three population categories: below 3 lakh, 3-10 lakh, and above 10 lakh. The process involved self-assessment by cities, review by State-level Monitoring Committees, technical evaluation by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), and on-ground verification by independent committees before the top 10 performers in each group were finalised.