Clean Himalayan Hill Cities initiative

Why in News

• A preparatory workshop on the Clean Himalayan Hill Cities Initiative was organised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) on 16 December 2025 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
• The initiative was announced earlier at the National Urban Conclave 2025 (8–9 November 2025).

About the Initiative

• The Clean Himalayan Hill Cities Initiative is a focused urban cleanliness programme aligned with the Swachh Bharat Mission–Urban (SBM-U) vision of Garbage Free Cities.
• It aims to design context-specific, sustainable, and resilient solid waste and sanitation solutions for hill and Himalayan cities, recognising their unique ecological and geographic challenges.

Coverage

States & Regions Included

Apart form the 13 North-Eastern and Himalayan hill cities, key hill and foothill cities of West Bengal—Darjeeling, Kurseong, Kalimpong, Mirik and Siliguri—are also included in the initiative.

Why a Special Initiative for Hill Cities?

India’s Hill and Himalayan States—including Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, and select cities in West Bengal—face distinct urban challenges, such as:

• Fragile ecosystems
• Steep, unstable terrain
• Dispersed and low-density settlements
• Extreme climatic conditions
• Limited land availability for waste processing
• High vulnerability to landslides, floods, and climate change impacts

These factors limit the effectiveness of standard urban waste and sanitation models used in plains.

Objectives

• Achieve visible cleanliness in hill cities
• Promote source segregation and scientific waste processing
• Develop eco-sensitive sanitation and waste management models
• Strengthen climate-resilient urban infrastructure
• Reduce environmental degradation in mountain ecosystems
• Support tourism-dependent local economies

Link with Swachh Bharat Mission–Urban

• Reinforces SBM-U’s goal of Garbage Free Cities
• Adapts national cleanliness standards to local hill-specific realities
• Builds on progress already achieved under SBM-Urban while addressing structural and geographic constraints