Navi Mumbai: The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has announced a citywide ‘Green Ward’ competition aimed at encouraging citizen participation in environmental conservation and transforming the city’s eight administrative wards into greener, cleaner and more aesthetically appealing areas.
Navi Mumbai has been ranked second among environment-friendly cities in Maharashtra under the state government’s Majhi Vasundhara Abhiyan. Against this backdrop, the civic body has launched the competition to strengthen the environmental movement through public participation.
The competition, which will run from August 2026 to March 31, 2027, will focus on increasing green cover, improving parks and open spaces, beautifying road medians and junctions, and promoting biodiversity. Municipal ward officers and tree officers will supervise the implementation of various initiatives in their respective wards.
The NMMC has laid down 14 criteria for evaluation. These include innovative landscaping of gardens, plantation of native and plant-based species to control pollution, beautification of parks, roads and open spaces, biodiversity conservation, development of tourism-oriented gardens and cultivation of special flowering and fruit-bearing plants in nurseries.
Citizen and student participation will also be an important component. Wards will be encouraged to involve school students in tree conservation activities and undertake environmental awareness programmes. Initiatives through corporate social responsibility (CSR) to increase green areas will also be considered.
The competition will additionally assess the quality of routine garden maintenance, speedy disposal of online complaints received through the civic body’s grievance app, and efforts to save trees affected by private and public development projects. Tree transplantation and subsequent care of transplanted trees will also form part of the assessment.
Other initiatives eligible for evaluation include tree rallies, seed collection drives, composting of green waste, creative use of dry tree waste, conservation of heritage trees and other innovative environmental awareness activities.
Each ward will be required to prepare a ‘Green Profile’ or baseline data at the beginning of the competition. The profile will document existing environmental conditions and subsequently track activities such as plantation, beautification and public participation.
The civic body has also mandated photographic documentation of innovative works, including ‘before’ and ‘after’ photographs, with Google Map-based photographic evidence where required.
The final assessment will be conducted during the last 15 days of the competition. An evaluation committee headed by the Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Gardens), with representatives from nominated environmental organisations and NGOs, will oversee the final assessment to ensure transparency in the scoring process.
Mayor Sujata Patil had announced the Green Ward competition during a tree plantation programme at Nisarg Udyan in Koparkhairane. Following the announcement, Municipal Commissioner Dr Kailas Shinde issued a circular inviting environment-conscious citizens to participate actively in the initiative.
The civic administration said the competition is expected to create healthy competition among the eight NMMC wards while accelerating the city’s green development. The emphasis on public participation is also expected to turn environmental conservation into a wider citizens’ movement across Navi Mumbai.
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