NCAP Cities Ranked in Swachh Vayu Survekshan 2025 Survey

Indian cities have been ranked in terms of their efforts to address air pollution in the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) as Swachh Vayu Survekshan 2025 . This year of assessment as compared to previous surveys which primarily focused on the level of pollutants is focusing on the actual implementation of control measures against pollution sources.

Indore Leads the Rankings

With the current population standing at a million plus, Indore, the already cleanest city in India, got back the number one position in the same category that it had slipped to the sixth position in 2024. Although the level of PM10 has slightly increased (82 mg/m3 in 2017-18 to 83 mg/m3 in 2024-25), the city has made the most active efforts in pollution control, therefore, receiving the highest score. Jabalpur came in second place, Agra and Surat were third. The other top 10 cities were Navi Mumbai, Kanpur, Bhopal and Allahabad.

Conversely, big metros such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai were ranked lower although they registered certain PM10 improvements, which are the discrepancies between policy implementation and actual air quality.

PM10 Pollution Trends

PM 10, which is a significant air pollutant causing respiratory infections, is a problem in India. Positively, there were considerable improvements in a number of cities. Mumbai recorded maximum PM10 reduction at 44, Kolkata (37) and Hyderabad/Bengaluru (26). There are twenty-two cities that comply with National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) of less than 60mg/m3, and Chennai remains the only metro city of such category.

Rankings by Population Size

Cities have been rated in three groups to allow a fair comparison:

• Megacities with a population of millions: Indore, Jabalpur, Agra-Surat (combined).
• 3-10 lakh cities: The leading one was Amravati, then there was Jhansi and Moradabad.
• Less than 3 lakh: Dewas was in control, after which Parwanoo and Angul followed.

This type of tiered ranking aids in developing specific clean-air plans by the size and resources of the city.

Government Initiatives

According to the Environment Ministry 103 out of 130 NCAP cities registered a decrease in PM10. There were 64 such cities that reduced pollution by at least 20 percent and 25 by 40 percent. Indore and Udaipur were declared as Ramsar Convention Wetland Cities and were given certificates. The Ek Ped Maa ke Naam campaign was also initiated to plant 75 crore trees in Seva Parv (Sept 17-Oct 2) making the connection between clean air and greenery even stronger.

Challenges Ahead

A lot of positive trends also do not mean that many of the metros are under safe PM10 levels. Specialists point out that the low rating of the actual reduction of pollutants enables the cities with high pollution that have strong action plans to score high in the survey. In the future, India would have to operationalize measurements that are more in line with actual air quality results to achieve healthier cities and cleaner skies.