Dubai: Lucknow has emerged as India’s top-performing city in the latest Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan, edging out Indore by just one point in the category for cities with a population of more than one million.
The rankings were announced on Wednesday during Swachh Vayu Diwas 2026, organised by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to mark the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies.
Lucknow’s top ranking was attributed to measures aimed at improving air quality, including adding electric vehicles to its municipal waste-management fleet, deploying mechanised road-sweeping machines to control road dust and remediating legacy waste sites.
Indore finished second, followed by Jabalpur in third place in the million-plus population category. Delhi ranked 30th, while Mumbai was placed 37th.
Chennai, Jamshedpur, Kota, Kolkata and Madurai were among the five lowest-ranked cities in the category.
The Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan assessed 130 cities across three population groups. The evaluation included self-assessment by cities, scrutiny by State-level Monitoring Committees, assessment by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), field verification by independent committees and selection of the 10 best-performing cities.
National Green Tribunal Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava, the chief guest at the event, praised efforts under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), saying clean air could be achieved through effective planning and ground-level implementation.
The government said NCAP has shown measurable progress. During 2025-26, 108 of the 130 participating cities recorded improved PM10 levels compared with 2017-18. Of these, 72 achieved reductions of more than 20%, while 26 recorded reductions exceeding 40%.
The government has provided Rs16,425 crore in performance-linked grants to the 130 NCAP cities to support air-pollution mitigation measures.
