According to a recent survey, Tiruchirappalli is the only city, which has topped the ranking for clean cities in India, and it has emerged as the sixth cleanest city in the nation, while Coimbatore, known for its famed cleanliness and civic amenities has been relegated to 16th place in the recent the Swachh Survekshan 2017, a survey and sanitization ranking of Cities, Towns, and Union Territories
Trichy also happened to be the only city, which captured a place within the first ten rankings and Coimbatore in the first 20 rankings. Greater Chennai has performed poorly by securing the 235th place. Nearer home, Erode has secured 42nd place and Tiruppur 68. While Madurai had emerged as 57 the clean city ranking exercise.
In Tamilnadu, a total of 26 towns and cities have found a place in the ranking exercise. While in Delta districts Thanjavur has secured 198th place and Nagapattinam 187th ranking.
Kumbakonam has fared better by scoring 37th place. In a central region of Tamilnadu Pudukkottai has scored 113th place and Karaikudi 110th place. Down south, Nagercoil has emerged as 174th cleanest city and Rameshwaram 268.
The other cities which found a mention in the rankings are: Tambaram-62, Hosur-82, Velankanni-84, Dindigul-106, Vellore-108, Rajapalayam-125, Kanchipuram-127, Salem-135, Avadi-169, Thirunelveli-193, Thuthukkudi-223, Thiruvannamalai-238, Cudalore-250, Ambur-267, Rameswaram-268
At an All India level, Indore has emerged as the cleanest city in India, followed by Visakapattinam in Andhra Pradesh and Surat in Gujarat, which secured second and third places, respectively. While Gonda in Uttar Pradesh has bagged the notoriety of being the dirtiest city in the country.
A total of 500 cities were ranked on the basis of urban cleanliness and amenities provided by the respective civic bodies in this annual survey which are sponsored by Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD). While only 73 cities were ranked in 2016 the scope of the survey was increased in 2017 to foster a healthy competition between cities to improve cleanliness standards.