Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal on Monday launched PRAGATI-50, a Model City Framework to develop 50 cities across 24 states as demonstration models of visible cleanliness.

Launched under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0, the initiative covers the entire sanitation value chain and will use KPI-based monitoring, with the minister chairing bimonthly reviews of all 50 cities. Digital reviews will be conducted through the Swachhatam Portal.

The programme also includes a Swachh Bharat Test Bed and Innovation Centre at Durgapur, developed with CSIR-CMERI, and a third cohort of 13 Swachh startups being incubated with IIT Kanpur.

The minister said the initiative was designed to create replicable models of urban sanitation that other cities could learn from.

The launch marks a new phase in the government’s urban cleanliness drive, shifting focus toward deep, measurable outcomes across the selected cities.

The minister also reviewed the Swachh Survekshan rankings during the event, urging cities to treat cleanliness as a continuous mission rather than a one-time campaign.