Noida: Noida has been ranked the cleanest city in India in the category of 3 lakh to 10 lakh population under the “Super Swachh League Cities 2024-25”. The announcement was made by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Noida outperformed other top cities in its category, including Chandigarh, Mysuru, Ujjain, Gandhinagar, and Guntur, to claim the top spot. The award was presented by President Droupadi Murmu at a ceremony in New Delhi on Thursday. It was received by Uttar Pradesh Energy Minister Arvind Kumar Sharma, along with Noida Authority CEO Lokesh M and Additional CEO Sanjay Kumar Khatri. In order to be included in this league, a city had to rank in the top three positions at least once in the last three years and rank in the top 20% of the category for the current survey. Noida received this privilege due to its outstanding and sustained performance. The other members of this elite club include Indore, NDMC and Navi Mumbai. Clean City, Team Effort Noida is a city that is over 20,000 hectares in size with 165 sectors and 81 villages. According to the Noida, the top ranking of being nationality clean has been achieved by following a proper and coordinated plan. This means bringing about modern waste management strategies, raising public awareness and tracking sanitation with technology. The city generates waste of about 1,200 metric tonnes, every day. Since 2018, door to door waste collection has been conducted, which employed 300 vehicles and 30 compactors. Waste is sorted, treated, and delivered using GPS based recipient tracking systems. Through a control room located in Sector 94, workers' tasks are tracked via a monitoring system, as well. In the last four years, authority has constructed: • 80 community toilets. • 150 public toilets. • 20 pink toilets for women. • 150 urinals. These are the steps that have eliminated open defecation and have provided clean washing in homes, village areas, and marketplaces. To encourage home composting, 40,000 compost kits available with homes. It also placed nearly 3,000 dustbins in public areas. The bio-remediation plant located in Sector 145 (spreading over 20,000 sq. meters) is working to alleviate waste sites for a cleaner working area for today devoid of waste. Strategy and surveillance Officials say cleanliness is closely monitored through regular field visits and data-driven adjustments. In the run-up to the survey, the city intensified its campaigns against single-use plastic, seized non-compliant materials and ensured no untreated waste entered drains. Officials said they are now using Corporate Social Responsibility funds to further enhance infrastructure and aim for a plastic-free city. “We conducted regular site inspections of sectors, villages, and other areas to ensure the sewer line, drainage network including other spaces remain clean. We cracked down against the use of banned plastic as it chokes our drains,” Lokesh M said. “Our team carried out regular workshops to spread awareness about sanitation issues and waste management rules so that we can seek support from all stakeholders.” Authorities said, in complete contrast to other urban centres, that Noida's cleanliness in 2024 was far broader than only the collection of waste. Noida has an integrated, comprehensive sanitation plan in place: there is deep cleaning of roads, weed clearance, mechanical cleaning of major roads and even treating wastewater. These actions alone have helped eradicate potentially odorous sources of foul smell and have measured up overall standards of sanitation. Neighbouring Cities Lack Behind The city's competitors, however, like Greater Noida and Yamuna City, did not participate in this year's rankings, while other municipal towns, like Dadri and Jewar, did compete, but missed the cut due to a lack of capable waste management and sanitation. In the 20,000-50,000 population category, Jewar (where Noida international airport is being built) ranked 462 nationally, 271 statewide in UP. Jewar's survey findings indicated their 30% door to door waste collection rate and 18% source segregation, with zero proper waste remedial steps. Dadri has an overall better performance as it is in the 50,000 - 300,000 population range. Its national rank is 86 and Uttar Pradesh rank is 30, with 100% door-to-door waste collection and 99% waste processing. It underperformed in source segregation (49%) and dump site remediation (47%). Rabupura municipality, which will be home to the new Yamuna Film City, had a particularly poor performance with 3% in waste segregation and 0% in dump remediation. It ranked 708 nationally and 429 in Uttar Pradesh. It fell under the under-20,000 population category. The only indicators that scored the town full marks for cleanliness is residential and market areas.