Parliament Question: Air quality ranking for cities

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3117 TO BE ANSWERED ON 19.03.2026 Air quality ranking for cities

3117. SHRI PARIMAL NATHWANI:

Will the Minister of ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE be pleased to state:

(a) the air quality ranking for cities in various States and Union Territories and the names of cities that have not met National Air Quality Standards;

(b) the details of funds allocated and achievement of objectives under National Clean Air Programme

(NCAP) during the last three years, State-wise and year-wise; and

(c) the details of top-10 cities with cleanest air in terms of AQI during the last three years along with their average annual AQI index figure? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI KIRTI VARDHAN SINGH)

(a) to (c): Government has launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in 2019 as a long- term, time-bound, national-level strategy to address air pollution in 130 cities across 24 States/UTs.

City Specific Clean Air Action Plans have been prepared for all 130 cities under NCAP to implement air quality improvement measures in respective cities to target air pollution sources like soil & road dust, vehicular emissions, waste burning, construction & demolition activities and industrial pollution.

“Swachh Vayu Survekshan” initiative of MoEF&CC is conducted annually to rank 130 cities under NCAP on the basis of implementation of air quality improvement activities in three groups categorised based on population, in line with Swachh Vayu Survekshan Framework. Details of ranking of 130 cities carried out under “Swachh Vayu Survekshan 2025” along with cities that have not met NAAQS for PM10 levels (60 µg/m3) are enclosed at Annexure-I.

Out of 130 cities covered under NCAP, 48 Million-Plus Cities/Urban Agglomerations are funded under the XV Finance Commission (XV FC) through its Million-Plus Cities Challenge Fund

(MPCCF), while the remaining 82 cities are funded under the Central Sector Scheme (CSS) ‘Control of Pollution’ (CP) of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).

Performance linked grant of ₹ 13,865.52 crore has been released to 130 cities as a critical gap funding to implement air pollution mitigation measures, since 2019-20 to till date.State-wise and year-wise details of funds released under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) since 2022-23 under the XV Finance Commission (XVFC) and the Central Sector Scheme ‘Control of Pollution’ (CP), are provided in Annexure-II.

Air Quality Index (AQI) has been classified into Good Days having AQI<200 (Good: 0-50,

Satisfactory: 51-100, Moderate: 101-200) and Bad Days having AQI > 201 (Poor: 201-300; Very

Poor: 301-400; Severe: 401-500). Top ten cities that have recorded highest number of Good days in the year 2025, 2024 and 2023 are enclosed at the Annexure-III. ***Annexure-I Ranking of 130 cities carried out under Swachh Vayu Survekshan 2025 Category-I: List of Cities- Population above 10 Lakhs Sl.No. City/ Town Rank 1 Indore 1 2 Jabalpur 2 3 Agra 3 4 Surat 3 5 Navi-Mumbai 4 6 Kanpur 5 7 Bhopal 6 8 Allahabad 7 9 Thane 7 10 Chandigarh 8 11 Trichy* 9 12 Ahmedabad 10 13 Pune 10 14 Nagpur 10 15 Varanasi* 11 16 Raipur 11 17 Ghaziabad 12 18 Vijayawada 13 19 Vadodara 14 20 Vasai Virar 14 21 Rajkot 15 22 Lucknow 15 23 Nashik 16 24 Vishakhapatnam 17 25 Ludhiana 18 26 Faridabad 19 27 Asansol 2028 Srinagar 21 29 Hyderabad 22 30 Jamshedpur 23 31 Durg Bhilai 24 32 Mumbai 25 33 Jaipur 26 34 Patna 27 35 Gwalior 28 36 Dhanbad 29 37 Ranchi 30 38 Amritsar 31 39 Delhi 32 40 Meerut 33 41 Aurangabad 34 42 Jodhpur 35 43 Bangalore 36 44 Kota 37 45 Kolkata 38 46 Howrah 39 47 Madurai 40 48 Chennai* 41

Note: * marked cities have met National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for PM10 levels for FY 2024-25 and other cities have not met NAAQS for PM10 levels.Category-II: List of cities-Population from 3 to 10 Lakhs Sl.No.

City/ Town Rank 1 Amravati 1 2 Moradabad 2 3 Jhansi* 2 4 Alwar 3 5 Bhubaneswar 4 6 Gorakhpur 5 7 Firozabad 5 8 Guntur 6 9 Bareilly* 7 10 Ulhasnagar 8 11 Noida 9 12 Cuttack 10 13 Gaya 11 14 Rajahmundry* 12 15 Ujjain 13 16 Devanagere* 14 17 Udaipur 15 18 Sagar 16 19 Rourkela 17 20 Korba 18 21 Nellore* 18 22 Dehradun 19 23 Hubli-Dharwad 20 24 Guwahati 21 25 Jammu 22 26 Kadapa* 23 27 Latur 24 28 Solapur 2529 Jalgaon 26 30 Badlapur 27 31 Sangli 28 32 Kurnool* 29 33 Muzaffarpur 30 34 Chandrapur 31 35 Patiala 32 36 Akola 33 37 Barrackpore 34 38 Anantapur* 35 39 Gulburga* 36 40 Durgapur 37 41 Kolhapur 38 42 Jalandhar 39

Note: * marked cities have met National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for PM10 levels for FY 2024-25 and other cities have not met NAAQS for PM10 levels.Category-III: List of cities- Population less than 3 Lakh Sl.No. City/ Town Rank

1. Dewas 1

2. Parwanoo* 2

3. Angul 3

4. Talcher 4

5. Anpara 5

6. Nalagarh 6

7. Raebareli 7

8. Vizianagaram 8

9. Haldia 9

10. Baddi 10

11. Balasore 11

12. Paonta Sahib 12

13. Nalgonda 13

14. Rishikesh 14

15. Nalbari 15

16. Srikakulam 16

17. Sangareddy 17

18. Kashipur 18

19. Kalinga Nagar 19

20. Silchar* 20

21. Sibsagar* 20

22. Ongole* 21

23. Damtal* 22

24. Gajraula 23

25. Sunder Nagar* 24

26. Nagaon 25

27. Khurja 26

28. Kala Amb 2729. Pathankot/Dera Baba* 28

30. Chittoor* 29

31. Jalna 30

32. Eluru 31

33. Naya Nangal* 32

34. Gobindgarh 33

35. Dimapur 34

36. Dera Bassi 35

37. Thoothukudi* 36

38. Khanna 37

39. Kohima 38

40. Byrnihat 39

Note: * marked cities have met National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for PM10 levels for FY 2024-25 and other cities have not met NAAQS for PM10 levels.Annexure II State-wise details of funds released during the financial years 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26 under the XV Finance Commission (XV FC) and the Central Sector Scheme ‘Control of Pollution’ (CP) (Rs. in crore) Funds released during the year Sr.

State no FY 2022-23 FY 2023-24 FY 2024-25 FY 2025-26 Andhra 1 Pradesh 75.06 49.81 67.54 46.16 2 Chandigarh 6.87 8.05 - 10.56 3 Chhattisgarh 57.94 1.69 49.49 5.07 4 Gujarat 173.29 277.42 197.56 - Himachal 5 Pradesh 3.59 3.19 - 5.34 Jammu & 6 Kashmir 32.50 62.49 - 72.05 7 Jharkhand 42.00 - - - 8 Karnataka 128.52 27.51 - 28.41 Madhya 9 Pradesh 135.04 43.18 154.90 29.21 10 Maharashtra 386.83 70.08 - 40.44 11 Odisha 38.52 20.23 - 32.93 12 Punjab 56.88 53.55 38.14 100.10 13 Rajasthan 103.76 80.63 63.05 14.15 14 Tamilnadu 129.22 38.93 113.43 140.31 15 Telangana 92.96 164.07 112.36 3.73 16 Uttar Pradesh 672.83 594.94 422.19 457.75 17 Uttrakhand 22.30 29.18 - 34.70 18 West Bengal 173.42 312.76 209.77 27.32 19 Bihar 7.09 10.82 30.39 21.67 20 Assam 24.10 34.20 - 38.06 21 Nagaland 3.95 9.00 - 11.13 22 Meghalaya 0.45 4.50 - 4.21 23 Delhi 22.50 8.94 - 38.67 24 Haryana 19.28 - 33.61 - Total 2408.90 1905.17 1492.43 1161.97Annexure -III Details of ten cities having highest number of Good days in the year 2023, 2024 and 2025 S. No. City Good Days in 2023 1 Bengaluru 365 2 Hyderabad 365 3 Varanasi 365 4 Agra 364 5 Raipur 362 6 Chennai 362 7 Ahmedabad 362 8 Thiruvananthapuram 361 9 Chamarajanagar 360 10 Moradabad 358 S. No. City Good Days in 2024 1 Bengaluru 366 2 Hyderabad 366 3 Varanasi 366 4 Bhilai 366 5 Solapur 366 6 Raipur 365 7 Thiruvananthapuram 365 8 Chennai 364 9 Indore 364 10 Mumbai 364 S. No. City Good Days in 2025 1 Bengaluru 365 2 Hyderabad 365 3 Raipur 365 4 Chennai 365 5 Aurangabad 365 6 Nashik 365 7 Navi Mumbai 365 8 Thane 365 9 Indore 364 10 Mumbai 364 *****