BHUBANESWAR: Angul has earned the third rank in the ‘National Clean Air City’ award among the cities having less than three lakh population in Swachh Vayu Survekshan 2025, results of which were announced by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) on Tuesday.
Urban Odisha’s performance in the national clean air city survey was a mixed bag as Bhubaneswar improved its rank by two positions, while performance of cities like Cuttack and Rourkela and Balasore remained discouraging.
Union minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav presented the awards to the best performing cities in three different categories as part of the Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan Awards & Wetland Cities Recognition Ceremony held in New Delhi.
Angul, one of the 130 urban centres covered under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), was conferred the award for improving its air quality by working on road infrastructure and conducting public outreach activities to bring down air pollution.
The award included `12.50 lakh cash prize. District authorities said the award is the result of active steps taken to prohibit polluting truck movement within the town limits in the last two years.
This is the second time that Angul has been recognised with the award, the first being in 2023. Besides, Angul is the only urban area from the state that has been managed to get to the top three.
Apart from Angul, capital city Bhubaneswar improved its position from rank seven to five this year among the cities having a population in the range of three to 10 lakh. Similarly, Talcher, competing in below three lakh population category, maintained its position as the fourth clear air city among the NCAP covered urban areas for the second year in a row.
However, Cuttack, which was ranked nine last year among cities in three to 10 lakh category, fell to 12 this year. Rourkela’s rank plunged to 19 from 12 last year, while Balasore, which was at rank seven last year in the category of cities below three lakh population, was ranked 11 this year, indicating that the cities have not been able to maintain the air quality they had achieved in the previous year.