Katraj sits at the foot of the Katraj Ghat on NH-48, the highway linking Pune south to Kolhapur and Bengaluru through the 1,223-metre New Katraj Tunnel, opened in December 2006. Pune-Satara Road and Katraj-Kondhwa Road cross at Katraj Chowk, and the Katraj-Dehu Road Bypass runs 40 km north to Dehu Road.

PMPML buses and the 5.8 km Swargate-Katraj BRTS corridor connect the area to the city, and an underground Metro extension to Katraj is now under construction.

Bharati Vidyapeeth's main university campus is based in Katraj, bringing its homeopathic medical college and the attached Bharati Hospital into the locality itself.

Around it sits a wide spread of schools and junior colleges, including Goodwill English Medium School & Junior College, Huzurpaga School, Utkarsh English Medium School, Shivaji Secondary School and Vishwakarma College of Arts, Commerce and Science, covering options from nursery through undergraduate study.

Katraj's centrepiece is the Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park, commonly called Katraj Snake Park: a 130-acre complex of zoo, animal orphanage and reptile park on the banks of the 42-acre Peshwa-era Katraj Lake that gives the area its name. Asiatic lions and a Bengal tiger named Tanaji live here alongside over 22 species of snakes.

The locality is also home to a large Jain temple, one of Pune's major Svetambara pilgrimage sites, built in the late 20th century with a dharamshala for visitors.

Everyday entertainment in Katraj revolves around its neighbourhood malls. Abhiruchi Mall and Multiplex pairs a cinema with shopping, while Sixth Sense Shopping Centre, Dorabjee's Mall, Bizzbay Mall and Konark Indrayu Mall add further retail and dining options.

Supermarket chains including DMart, More Supermarket and Reliance Smart round out the daily shopping mix, alongside outlets of national retail brands such as Bata.

Katraj falls under Pune Municipal Corporation, which is widening Katraj-Kondhwa Road and adding grade separators to ease congestion and drainage along the stretch. An underground Metro extension from Swargate to Katraj has had its foundation laid, adding to a transit backbone that already includes the Swargate-Katraj BRTS corridor.

Parts of the locality see water pipeline bursts and low pressure, issues the civic body is working through as it extends piped networks to newer pockets.