Nagpur: With the Swachh Survekshan-2025 assessment officially underway, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) finds itself under intense scrutiny as it strives to improve its standing in the national cleanliness rankings. The assessment team, which arrived on Sunday, March 30, will evaluate the city’s sanitation and waste management performance over the next two weeks, focusing on 54 critical indicators that could determine Nagpur’s fate in the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) rankings.
Among the key evaluation criteria are visible cleanliness, waste segregation, garbage collection and processing, wastewater management, underground sewerage cleaning, road sweeping automation, and sanitary worker facilities. However, one of the most influential factors in this year’s assessment is citizen feedback — an area where NMC’s Solid Waste Management performance will be directly judged by the people.
Gold Rate
Monday 31March 2025
This year’s Swachh Survekshan carries a total of 12,500 marks, distributed across three primary components: 10,000 marks for Swachh Survekshan performance, 1,300 for garbage-free city status, and 1,200 for open defecation-free certification. Given Nagpur’s fluctuating performance in past rankings, civic officials are under pressure to demonstrate significant improvement.
Nagpur’s ranking has seen a roller-coaster trend in recent years. After ranking a disappointing 137th in 2017, the city made a remarkable leap to 18th position in 2020. However, it has since slipped, landing at 86th place in 2023. While Nagpur has performed well in door-to-door waste collection and source segregation, it scored zero in the “garbage-free city” category, which carries 1,250 crucial marks.
Persistent Garbage Vulnerable Points (GVPs) and inefficiencies in waste management continue to plague the city. Despite outsourcing door-to-door garbage collection to two private agencies, Nagpur has yet to secure the coveted ‘garbage-free city’ certification. Currently, NMC officially recognizes around 400 GVPs, though insiders suggest the actual number is significantly higher. In response, NMC’s Solid Waste Management Department has launched an intensive cleanup campaign, targeting 100 critical dumping sites across all municipal zones. Each zone has been instructed to address at least 10 ‘black spots’ created due to public negligence.
With 4,400 km of roads to maintain and a sanitation workforce of 7,000, NMC has deployed six road sweeping machines, three robotic sewer cleaners, 21 suction-cum-jetting machines, and five suction machines—though three of these are nearing the end of their operational lifespan. To bolster its infrastructure, NMC recently procured two additional suction-cum-jetting machines from the state government.
As the Swachh Survekshan-2025 evaluation progresses, the city’s ability to eliminate GVPs, enhance waste processing efficiency, and garner favourable public feedback will be crucial in determining its ranking. Deputy Municipal Commissioner Vijay Deshmukh has urged citizens to cooperate with NMC’s initiatives and provide positive feedback to the SBM survey team, emphasizing that public participation will play a decisive role in shaping Nagpur’s cleanliness reputation on the national stage.
