The candidate pool
14 cities, chosen before anyone checked imagery coverage
Cities were selected to span region, population tier, and economic tier — then, and only then, does the project measure how well each one is covered by street-level imagery. Selecting for coverage first would make the coverage-bias question unanswerable by construction.
| City | State | Region | 2011 population | Pop. tier | Economic tier | Road network |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mumbai | Maharashtra | West | 12,442,373 | Megacity | High | Pending |
| Bengaluru | Karnataka | South | 8,443,675 | Megacity | High | Road network built |
| Hyderabad | Telangana | South | 6,731,790 | Megacity | High-mid | Pending |
| Ahmedabad | Gujarat | West | 5,577,940 | Megacity | High | Road network built |
| Chennai | Tamil Nadu | South | 4,646,732 | Megacity | High-mid | Pending |
| Kolkata | West Bengal | East | 4,496,694 | Megacity | Mid | Pending |
| Pune | Maharashtra | West | 3,124,458 | Large | High | Road network built |
| Jaipur | Rajasthan | North | 3,046,163 | Large | Mid | Pending |
| Nagpur | Maharashtra | West | 2,405,665 | Large | High | Road network built |
| Bhopal | Madhya Pradesh | Central | 1,798,218 | Large | Low-mid | Road network built |
| Patna | Bihar | East | 1,684,222 | Large | Low | Road network built |
| Ranchi | Jharkhand | East | 1,073,427 | Mid-size | Low | Road network built |
| Coimbatore | Tamil Nadu | South | 1,050,721 | Mid-size | High-mid | Road network built |
| Mysuru | Karnataka | South | 920,550 | Mid-size | High | Road network built |
Populations are 2011 Census of India city-proper figures, not urban agglomeration — the most recent full national census available. Economic tier is a coarse, qualitative grouping based on relative state per-capita NSDP ranking (RBI Handbook of Statistics on Indian States), not a precise figure.
Road network built means an OpenStreetMap drive-network has already been fetched and sampled for that city (see methods). It says nothing about imagery coverage — that is a separate, not-yet-measured question (see coverage).
Source: docs/city_selection.md · retrieved 2026-09-07