Behala runs along Diamond Harbour Road (NH-12) and James Long Sarani, via the Taratala flyover. The Kolkata Metro Purple Line's Joka-Majerhat stretch (Joka, Thakurpukur, Sakher Bazar, Behala Chowrasta, Behala Bazar, Taratala, Majerhat) opened 2022-24.

Suburban trains serve Majerhat, Brace Bridge and New Alipore. The Majerhat-Esplanade metro link, with a Park Street interchange, is under construction (target 2028-29).

Behala has a reasonable base of schools, including MP Birla Foundation Higher Secondary School, D.A.V. Public School, K.E.

Carmel School and Behala High School. The wider Behala/Joka belt is also home to the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C) at Joka and the ESIC Medical College & Hospital, a Government of India institution offering MBBS and postgraduate medical courses, giving the area an unusual concentration of higher education for a largely residential locality.

Behala/Taratala carries a long manufacturing legacy: a Ministry of MSME industrial profile lists the government-recognised Taratala Industrial Estate and historic units such as India Foils, Indian Oxygen, Modern Bread Industry and Eveready Battery, plus Behala-based Siel Hardmetal and Polar Fan Industry.

Behala's tourism appeal is heritage-led rather than resort-style. Its Barisha locality is the ancestral seat of the Sabarna Roy Choudhury family - among Bengal's oldest zamindar lines and trustees of the Kalighat Kali Temple - whose family Durga Puja, begun in 1610, is one of the oldest in western Bengal.

The Barisha Chandi Mela, a community fair dating to 1792, marked its 230th year in 2022 after a pandemic pause. Local temples such as Buroshibtalla also draw devotees during festivals.

Everyday entertainment in Behala centres on Diamond Harbour Road's retail strip, Diamond Plaza Mall near Behala Chowrasta, and a couple of local cinema halls, alongside neighbourhood green spaces such as Parnasree Park, Padmapukur and Senpally Park.

Behala forms KMC wards 115-132, administered from the Behala borough office on Diamond Harbour Road (KMC). KMC has invested in local water supply, including a booster pumping station and an underground reservoir at Daspara (Ward 124), and upgraded community halls on James Long Sarani.

Healthcare is well represented, with Vidyasagar State General Hospital, BP Poddar Hospital & Medical Research, RSV Hospital and the Government of India's ESIC Hospital at Joka. KMDA, the metro area's planning and civic-infrastructure authority, oversees broader drainage and development works.