City number six. Same rules: GHSL 2025 population (10.2 million people in a 48 × 41 km box), 13 food hotspots, 6 independent growths of 50,000 agents, and we count the people living within 800 m of a line. The real network is every Hyderabad Metro line open on 25 Oct 2026: Red (Miyapur to LB Nagar), Blue (Nagole to Raidurg) and Green (JBS Parade Ground to MG Bus Station). That's 57 stations and about 69 km officially (HMRL). Nothing new has opened since the Green Line in February 2020: Phase 2 (airport, Old City, Kokapet, Patancheru, Hayathnagar and more) is still waiting for the Centre's approval, and on 24 Oct 2026 the state was still picking a consultant for it (New Indian Express). We left out the MMTS suburban trains, so this is metro against metro, like Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Chennai. Pick the Hyderabad tab in the live sim above.
| Measure | Slime mold | Hyderabad Metro |
|---|---|---|
| Network length | 51 km | 56 km (straight lines) |
| People within 800 m of a line | 1.74 million (17%) | 1.74 million (17%) |
| People within 800 m, per km of line | 34,000 | 31,000 |
| Same length: people within 800 m | 1.85 million (56 km) | 1.74 million (56 km) |
| People within 1.5 km of a line | 3.07 million | 2.97 million |
| Share of its network within 1 km of the other's | 28% | 31% |
For the first time in the league, the blob comes out ahead. With a shorter network (51 km) it already reaches as many residents as the metro, and trimmed to exactly the metro's 56 km it reaches 1.85 million, 6% more. The other 56 km trim reaches 1.78 million, so call it a 2–6% win. Now the asterisk. Hyderabad's metro was built to reach jobs as well as homes: the Blue Line runs out to HITEC City and Raidurg, where few people live but huge numbers work. We count residents only, so this is the city where that rule flatters the slime most. The trimmed slime is also five separate pieces rather than one connected network (Bengaluru's was seven), and its biggest connected piece (31 km) reaches 1.03 million. So read it as "the metro skips some big crowds", not "a slime would run Hyderabad better". Hyderabad also has the lowest metro score per km in the league (31,000), partly because the city has added no new line in six years.
The biggest crowds more than 2 km from any open metro line, checked against the news. None of them has a line under construction.
| Hotspot (approx. centre) | People within 3 km | To nearest open line | Reality check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quthbullapur / Jeedimetla | 377,000 | 5.8 km | Awaiting approval The 24.5 km JBS–Medchal line (18 stations, Phase 2B) has a finished project report (The Hindu) but no central approval. In August 2026 residents walked from Jeedimetla to JBS to demand it (Deccan Chronicle). |
| Kushaiguda / ECIL / Kapra | 343,000 | 6.5 km | No line planned None of the seven Phase 2 corridors goes through Malkajgiri, ECIL or Kapra, an RTI reply showed (Hyderabad Mail). A Tarnaka–ECIL line exists only on a 2023 Phase III study list (HMRL tender). The slime's own top proposal is a 12 km Malkajgiri–ECIL tube. |
| Ramachandrapuram (west, near BHEL) | 153,000 | 7.7 km | Awaiting approval The 13.4 km Miyapur–Patancheru extension of the Red Line, via BHEL and RC Puram, is in Phase 2 (HMRL). The Centre has given no timeline for approving Phase 2 (Lok Sabha reply, Apr 2026). |
| East of Uppal (Pocharam) | 104,000 | 9.2 km | Study only An Uppal–Ghatkesar–Bibinagar line appears only on the 2023 Phase III study list (HMRL tender). |
The two biggest crowds of all, about 815,000 people around Mehdipatnam / Asif Nagar and 788,000 around Saidabad / Malakpet, sit 1–2 km from a line, so they just miss our 2 km gap rule. The slime puts hubs on both. The nearest real project is the 7.5 km MGBS–Chandrayangutta Old City line, the one Phase 2 corridor with work on the ground: about 830 of 888 properties have been cleared, and construction tenders will follow the remaining clearances (Hans India, 17 Oct 2026).
Hyderabad caveats. Station data is a Wikidata snapshot taken on 25 Oct 2026 (only stations marked "in use"), checked against the news. Lines are drawn as straight links, so we measure 56 km against the official ~69 km, and a shorter measured metro reaches fewer people. Residents only: HITEC City, Gachibowli and the Financial District count for nothing, which hurts the metro more here than anywhere else. Hussain Sagar and the other lakes aren't walls (they have almost no residents, so the slime has little reason to cross them). The MMTS suburban trains are left out. The box stops short of the airport (Shamshabad) and the far outskirts. The slime network is in pieces, and with 13 hotspots it is fairly sparse.
{FIGS}