The fort at Barabati continued to be the capital of the Mughals who started revenue settlement of Coastal Odisha – thus giving it the vernacular name of Mughalbandi.

Simultaneously, a number of petty princely states existed along the north and south bank of the Mahanadi upstream from Cuttack.

The Commissioner of Orissa division with superintendence powers over these three districts as well as the associated princely states also had his headquarters at Cuttack.

The average annual precipitation over the district is about 1,440 mm, most of which occurs during south-west monsoon period (June to September).

The Sadar subdivision mostly consists of the alluvial delta formed by the River Mahanadi and its distributaries.

The land is often waterlogged during the Monsoon and an elaborate system of canals, embankments and weirs is used for both flood control and irrigation.

The villages are located on an artificial high ground and are usually surrounded by copses of banyan, mango and other large trees.

The Athagad and Banki subdivisions consist of broken hill country on either side of the Mahanadi river.

Most of the hills are of low height and present a rounded appearance reaching a maximum of around 2500 feet along the border with Hindol.

Occasional fertile, narrow valleys formed by riverine action are also found – especially near Khurda district.

A thick layer of sandstone underlies these subdivisions while occasional laterite stone outcrops can be seen at many places.

The collector combines revenue collection functions with law and order responsibilities under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.

In his day-to-day functions, he is assisted by two additional district magistrates who look after Revenue and General Administration.

The Sub Collector exercises both direct and indirect control over the Tahsils, Blocks and Police Stations in his jurisdiction.

The city's schools provide courses in Bengali, Telugu, Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, English, and Odia.

The main-line of the East Coast Railway connecting Howrah to Chennai Central has a station at Cuttack.

It is believed to have the largest GDP among all cities in Odisha due to its large business houses and wide range of industries ranging from ferrous alloys, steel and logistics to agriculture and traditional industries like textiles and handicrafts.

It connects the upper mineral-advanced districts and states to the Kolkata-Chennai corridor at the meeting point of NH-42 and NH-5 at Manguli Square.

The people of nearby districts are heavily depended on the city for their livelihood, contributing to the service sector and, thus, the floating population.

Education is a major industry due to large number of universities, colleges, schools and coaching centres and caters to the neighboring districts.

According to the 2011 census Cuttack district has a population of 2,624,470,[1] roughly equal to the nation of Kuwait[7] or the US state of Nevada.

[1] Cuttack has a sex ratio of 940 females for every 1000 males,[1] and a literacy rate of 84.2%, both higher than the all India average.

Like much of Odisha, Jagannath is the preferred deity of worship while other gods and goddesses like Durga, Ganesha and Shiva also have large shrines dedicated to them.

[citation needed] Odia Muslims are about 5.38% of the population and are primarily concentrated in Cuttack city as well as the blocks of Mahanga, Salepur, Niali and Nischintakoili.

[citation needed] A small community of Mahayana Buddhists numbering around 6,000 are found in the villages of Maniabandh and Nuapatna in Baramba and Tigiria blocks.

This is the last remnant of a much larger Buddhist community that dominated Odisha for close to a thousand years till the 14th century.

In its general construction, the dialect is almost indistinguishable from the standard Hindi/Urdu of cities in Eastern India like Kolkata and Patna.

Cuttack city also has small Bengali and Telegu communities who migrated during the late 19th century.

The Zila Parishad is an elected body entrusted with the responsibility to oversee development activities in the district.

Gram Panchayats occupy the lowest rung and are headed by a Sarpanch assisted by an executive officer.