Mysuru in Karnataka, Chandigarh and Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu are in the sweet spot of Top 3.
A similar survey in 2014 ranked Mysuru and Tiruchirappali among the five cleanest cities as well.
Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat's Surat and Rajkot have both made it into the Top 10, showing a big improvement over their earlier ranking.
Last year, Mysuru, renowned as the City of Palaces, was ranked cleanest of India's 476 cities, each with a population of more than a lakh. That result was based on a survey that measured how sanitation has improved since the PM launched the Clean India mission in 2014 by sweeping a road in the capital himself.
The new survey, limited to cities which have at least 10 lakh residents, was ordered to eliminate unfair comparisons to much smaller towns. 22 state capitals were covered in the latest assessment.
The Swachh Bharat campaign is aimed at raising awareness of the co-relation between sanitation and health.
The PM has made building toilets a government priority and he has pledged that every household will have a toilet by 2019.
The new survey identifies not just the cleanest cities but those demonstrating significant improvement, as well as the stragglers that need to do much better.
TOP 10 CLEAN CITIES
1.Mysuru (Karnataka)
2.Chandigarh (Union Territory)
3.Tiruchirapalli (Tamil Nadu)
4.New Delhi
5.Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh)
6.Surat (Gujarat)
7.Rajkot (Gujarat)
8.Gangtok (Sikkim)
9.Pimpri Chindwad (Maharashtra)
10.Greater Mumbai (Maharashtra)
