For administrative purposes, the Salem corporation is divided into four zones: Suramangalam, Hasthampatty, Ammapettai, and Kondalampatty.

As part of the 2022 Tamil Nadu urban civic body elections, the Salem City Municipal Corporation went to polling on 19 February 2022, alongside 20 other municipal corporations of Tamil Nadu, to elect 60 councillors to represent the city's 60 wards; the councillors will choose one amongst themselves as the Mayor of Salem, a historically significant, coveted office.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) won 48 out of the total 60 wards in Salem, with the other parties in its Secular Progressive Alliance winning 2 seats by Indian National Congress.

The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) won 7 seats.

The emblem holds the theme of urbanization of the city by including the icons of industries and households.

The name 'Salem' appears to have been derived from Sela or Shalya by which the term refers to the country around the hills, as in the inscriptions.

Salem is known for its industrial base and has varied small scale commercial business.

The identified Smart City area is the Central Business District of Salem holding an area of 690 acre and it is inhabited by approximately 8% (71,295 persons) of the total Salem population (8,29,267 persons).

The existence of city bus stand as well as the market areas attracts large volume of population from all over.

Accordingly the core city area with maximum coverage was taken up which included; Mix of high commercial activities, congested transit hubs (old bus stand & railway station), narrow roads, diverse traffic composition, dense residential pockets, markets, informal hawking areas, heritage places, rejuvenation of Thirumanimutharu river channel to cater environmental problems and also ensuring a mix of different social and income groups.

The vision of Salem Smart City is making the identified Central Business District in to a vibrant commercial business center by providing an enhanced core infrastructure with ICT based solutions, Transit Oriented Development to boost local economy, promote interactions, and ensure citizen security.

The Smart city mission covers 100 cities in India, and Salem is covered as one of the Smart city in India, with the vision ""To establish Salem as commercial cum industrial hub with a diversified economic base that provides equitable opportunities to all and to provide paramount quality services through leading edge technology on the foundation of New Urbanism principles."

This ICCC shall effectively bring all necessary data pointers from various sources such ULB, police, transport, water, sewerage, power, etc.

The Command and Control Centre (CCC) acts as a fulcrum in effectively integrating most of the envisaged smart city works.

Aggregated at the national level, these proposals contained more than 5,000 projects worth over Rs.

New construction in areas under the Salem Local Planning Authority needs their approval to start work.

Total population of the area covered by Salem Urban Development Authority is 2,463,367.