 The district shares borders with Bay of Bengal in the east, Puducherry district of the union territory Puducherry in the southeast and the districts Chengalpattu and Tiruvannamalai in the north, Cuddalore in the south and Kallakurichi in the west.In 2006, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj named Vizhuppuram one of the 250 most backward districts (out of a total of 640) in the country.It is one of the six districts in Tamil Nadu currently receiving funding from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Program (BRGFP).