In a bid to comprehensively assess the urban development of Madhya Pradesh, the state government released its own ranking, to access cities on six broad parameters. Unlike the Union Government ranking, the state ranking states Chhindwara on top followed by Burhanpur and Dewas, wherein Bhopal is ranked in the eighth position followed by Indore in eleventh.

Principal Secretary UAHD, Sanjay Dubey asserted that the rankings are to get a balanced view on urban development, with a special focus of Swachha Bharat ranking, besides other methodology of including programmes of Urban development.

Similar to the Union government's ranking, Gwalior and Jabalpur division are at the bottom of the rankings. Drawing focus on the performance of Municipal Commissioners, Urban Administration and Housing Development (UAHD) department has set multi-parameters, besides Swachha Bharat.

The state government ranking is based on an assessment of broader criteria, including cleanliness, implementation of project under AMRUT, housing development and urban livelihood mission and smart city development.