Visakhapatnam: Andhra Pradesh has scored big in the Swachh Survekshan 2017 rankings with eight cities and towns from the state among the top 50 cleanest cities in the country.

The major cities of Andhra Pradesh — Visakhapatnam, Vijaya-wada and Tirupati — found their rightful place in the survey results released on Thursday. However, it was Vizag which took the nation by storm bagging a solid and well-deserved third place for its cleanliness and sanitation efforts, a two-notch jump from its fifth rank in 2016.

Temple town Tirupati showed significant impro-vement taking the ninth place. Vijayawada has been ranked as the 19th cleanest city. (It ranked 23rd in 2016 survey). Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu released the results in New Delhi. Visakhapatnam scored 1,797 points on a scale of 2,000 narrowly missing the top slot (Indore, 1,808) by 11 points and second place by three points (Bhopal, 1,800). Tirupati scored 1,704 points while Vijayawada got 1,624. In 2016, Visakhapatnam scored 1,643 points while Vijayawada got 1,284.

Indore topped the list with 1,808 points followed by Bhopal, Visakhapat-nam, Surat, Mysuru, Tiruchirapally, New Delhi Municipal Council, Navi Mumbai, Vadodara and Chandigarh (in that order).

To foster healthy competition among cities for improving cleanliness standards, the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) initiated this survey in 2016, rating 73 cities across the country. But this time, the number of cities participating in the survey went up to 434.

From Andhra Pradesh, 32 cities and towns participated in the 2017 survey. While eight cities/towns made it to the top 50 cleanest cities list, eight towns from AP got a place in the top 50-100 list. All cities from the state bettered their performances from their rankings in 2016 and 2014-15 surveys.

Apart from the efforts of officials and staff of the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation in keeping the city in top form, it is Vizagites’ love for their city which earned them the tag of ‘3rd cleanest city' on Thursday.

Over Rs 1.4 lakh Vizagites had submitted their feedback for Swachh Survek-shan 2017, which dedicated 600 marks (30 per cent weightage) for citizens’ feedback in the total 2,000.

Vizag scored 869 points in the self-declaration category, 459 in on-site observation category and 469 in citizen feedback, scoring a total of 1,797 points on a scale of 2,000 points.

The city was officially declared as an open defecation free city after the GVMC constructed over 13,000 individual toilets.