It is named after New Delhi, the capital of India, located within its borders, and is in its entirety a part of the Delhi megacity.

It covers the centrally located Lutyens' Delhi and reaches all the way to the NCT's southwestern borders to Gurugram.

[7] As the other 10 districts of the NCT, it is subdivided into three tehsils: Chanakyapuri, Delhi Cantonment and Vasant Vihar.

[10] In its then borders, the district covered 35 km².

[11] When the borders of the districts of Delhi were redrawn in 2012,[12] the New Delhi district became significantly bigger, now spanning all the way to the border to the neighboring state of Haryana.