Salt Lake sits on Kolkata's north-eastern edge, laid out in sectors and blocks and threaded by the EM Bypass and Salt Lake Bypass. The Green Line (East-West) Metro runs through Sector V, Karunamoyee, Central Park, City Centre and Salt Lake Stadium stations to Sealdah, Esplanade and Howrah Maidan.

The Orange Line (New Garia-airport) is due to interchange with the Green Line at Sector V's IT Centre station by December 2026. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport is about 13 km away, and buses, autos and e-rickshaws fill the rest.

Bidhannagar hosts a dense cluster of higher-education and research institutions - West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Bose Institute, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Techno India University, and satellite campuses of Jadavpur University and Calcutta University.

Schooling options span Salt Lake School, St. Francis Xavier School, Our Lady Queen of the Missions, two Kendriya Vidyalayas, and CBSE/ICSE schools such as Apeejay and Kalyani Public School.

Sector V and the adjoining Nabadiganta Industrial Township, run by NDITA, form East India's leading IT/ITeS and consulting hub, with companies such as TCS, Wipro, Cognizant, Accenture, KPMG, EY and PwC clustered here alongside Sector III. It grew from the Webel-backed Salt Lake Electronics Complex (1989), India's first integrated electronics park.

West Bengal now offers IT/ITES units a 50% property-tax exemption for 12 years plus 15% extra floor area ratio to sustain investment in the corridor.

Nicco Park, a 40-acre amusement park in Sector IV recognised by West Bengal Tourism as one of the state's major attractions (and popularly dubbed the 'Disneyland of West Bengal'), anchors Salt Lake's tourism appeal alongside Central Park's gardens and boating lake. The Boi Mela Prangan by Central Park/Karunamoyee has hosted the International Kolkata Book Fair, the world's largest book fair by footfall, since 2018.

Science City, one of India's largest science centres, is a short drive away on the EM Bypass.

Salt Lake is home to the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan (Salt Lake Stadium), an 85,000-capacity venue and home ground for East Bengal FC and Mohun Bagan SG that hosted the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup final.

City Centre Mall in Sector I/DC Block is a major shopping and dining destination, while Central Park's Boi Mela Prangan in Sector III/Karunamoyee has hosted the International Kolkata Book Fair - the world's largest book fair by footfall - every year since 2018.

Built from reclaimed wetlands from the late 1960s under Yugoslav architect Dobrivoje Toskovic, Salt Lake follows a planned sector-and-block grid administered by Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation and, within Sector V, the Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority. BMC offers online water-tanker booking, ferrule-connection and property-tax services, and adopted new Solid Waste Management bye-laws in 2025.

A new Bailey bridge linking Dakshindari to Salt Lake's AA Block eases VIP Road-Sector V traffic, and more pumping stations are planned to curb monsoon waterlogging.