"Which Indian metro looks most like a slime mold designed it?" Same model, same settings, seven cities, sorted by how close the slime gets in the equal-length fight. "People" means residents within 800 m of a line (GHSL 2025). "Gap" is how many fewer people the slime reaches than the real network when it's trimmed (or grown) to about the same length. A minus sign means the slime reaches more people. Every number is recomputed from the saved run results.
| City | Real km | Real: people within 800 m | Real: people per km | Slime km | Slime: people per km | Equal-length fight (real vs slime) | Gap | Top gap & planned fix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hyderabad Hyderabad Metro | 56 km | 1.74M | 31,000 | 51 km | 34,000 | 1.74M vs 1.85M slime wins · slime 56 km | −6% | Quthbullapur / Jeedimetla, 377k people JBS–Medchal line, DPR awaiting Centre |
| Pune Pune Metro | 29 km | 1.12M | 38,800 | 67 km | 28,000 | 1.12M vs 1.16M slime wins · slime 30 km | −4% | Kondhwa / Wanowrie, 826k people No line of its own; Katraj tunnel (being built) passes ~3 km west |
| Bengaluru Namma Metro | 85 km | 2.99M | 35,000 | 151 km | 25,700 | 2.99M vs 2.81M real wins · slime 84 km | 6% | RT Nagar / Hebbal, 1.42M people Pink Line underground, due Mar–May 2027 |
| Delhi NCR Delhi Metro | 368 km | 12.26M | 33,300 | 287 km | 29,900 | 12.26M vs 10.26M real wins · slime 386 km | 16% | Indirapuram / Khora, 764k people Only a proposal, no station yet |
| Mumbai Suburban rail + metro | 347 km | 14.25M | 41,100 | 176 km | 56,600 | 14.25M vs 10.98M real wins · slime 287 km | 23% | Trombay / Mahul, 478k people No approved line |
| Kolkata Kolkata Metro | 66 km | 5.13M | 77,900 | 122 km | 45,800 | 5.13M vs 3.54M real wins · slime 73 km | 31% | Maheshtala / Garden Reach, 629k people Only a proposal (Budge Budge metro, Sep 2026) |
| Chennai Chennai Metro | 63 km | 2.67M | 42,200 | 116 km | 25,800 | 2.67M vs 1.74M real wins · slime 58 km | 35% | Chromepet, 585k people Airport–Kilambakkam line, DPR awaiting Centre since Apr 2025 |
The slime now wins two: Hyderabad and Pune. Trimmed to Hyderabad's metro length (56 km), the slime reaches 1.85M residents against the metro's 1.74M, 6% more (a neighbouring trim, also 56 km, gives 1.78M, 2% more). Read that carefully: Hyderabad's metro was built to reach offices too (HITEC City, Raidurg), and we count only where people live, so it's the city where "residents only" flatters the slime most. The trimmed slime is also five separate pieces, not one connected network. Pune is closer to a draw: at 30 km against the metro's 29 km, the slime reaches 1.16M against 1.12M, 4% more, but per km it's under 1% ahead, and the trim is two pieces. Pune's metro is short (two lines meeting in the old city), so the slime simply heads for the big southern and eastern crowds (Kondhwa, Hadapsar) that no open line reaches yet. The real network wins the other five fights. Bengaluru is the closest of those (6%): its metro is young and still a sparse cross, so a blob that simply chases crowds almost matches it. Kolkata (31%) has the densest line of all: its 1984 Blue Line runs down a strip with 77,900 people per km, and no amount of slime wandering can beat that. Chennai (35%) has the biggest gap on paper, but part of that is length: the nearest equal-length slime is 58 km against the metro's 63 km, and the next step up (75 km, longer than the metro) still loses by 17%. Notes: Mumbai's slime tops out at 287 km, short of the 347 km rail network, so that fight isn't quite equal-length; Mumbai's real network includes the suburban trains, the other five are metro only (Chennai's MRTS and suburban trains and Hyderabad's MMTS are left out). Real km are straight lines between stations, a little under the official figures.