Union Minister Bhupender Yadav Confers Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan Awards to Cities for Clean Air Achievements Under NCAP 2025.

On 9 September 2025, Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Shri Bhupender Yadav, presented the Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan Awards 2025 to 11 best-performing cities from among 130 under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) at the Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan Awards & Wetland Cities Recognition Ceremony in New Delhi.

      - Indore (Madhya Pradesh), in Category-1 cities (population over 10 lakh), scored a perfect 200 out of 200, and was awarded Rs. 1.5 crore, after undertaking massive afforestation (over 16 lakh trees), adding 120 electric buses plus 150 CNG buses to its public transport fleet.

      - Jabalpur came second in Category-1 with a score of 199/200 and received Rs. 1 crore in prize money. Its achievements include establishing an 11 MW waste-to-energy plant and significantly increasing green cover.

      - Agra and Surat tied for third place in Category-1, both scoring 196/200 and each awarded Rs. 25 lakh. Agra focused on remediating legacy waste dumps and planting Miyawaki forests; Surat adopted electric vehicle (EV) policies and maintained about 38% green cover.

Main Point :-   (i) In Category-2 (cities with population between 3 to 10 lakh), Amravati (Andhra Pradesh) secured first place with full 200/200, rewarded Rs. 75 lakh, credited for developing over 53 gardens greened, converting 19 acres of barren land into forest, and improving road infrastructure (340 km pavement). Jhansi and Moradabad shared second rank; Alwar took third position.

      (ii) For Category-3 cities (population under 3 lakh), Dewas (Madhya Pradesh) ranked first with 193/200 and received Rs. 37.50 lakh for measures including shifting to cleaner fuels. Parwanoo (Himachal Pradesh) came second with 191.5 points, and Angul (Odisha) came third with 191 points and Rs. 12.50 lakh.

(iii) The Ministry released key instruments during the ceremony: guidelines for Ward-Level Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan, a Compendium of Best Practices under NCAP, and highlighted that over ₹1.55 lakh crore has been mobilised for clean air and green infrastructure across the 130 NCAP cities. Also, two cities, Indore and Udaipur, were granted Wetland City Accreditation under the Ramsar Convention.