Nagavali River originates from a hill near Lakhbahal village in Thuamul Rampur block of Kalahandi District. It touches Nakrundi, Kerpai areas of Kalahandi, Kalyansinghpur, Jaykaypur, and Rayagada of Rayagada district of Odisha and merged in Bay of Bengal near Kallepalli village near Srikakulam after crossing by the side of Srikakulam of Andhra Pradesh. It is an independent river with its own basin.

The total length of the river is about 256 kilometres (159 mi), of which 161 kilometres (100 mi) are in Odisha and the rest in Andhra Pradesh. The catchment area of the basin is 9,510 square kilometres (3,670 sq mi). Nagavali is an interstate river with 4,462 square kilometres (1,723 sq mi) and 5,048 square kilometres (1,949 sq mi) river basin area located in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh respectively. The river basin receives 1,000 millimetres (39 in) average rainfall annually. The yearly water availability in the river basin at Narayanapuram barrage is 1.117 billion cubic meters on average.^[2] The uplands of the river basin are hilly areas with predominantly tribal populated. It drains parts of the Kalahandi, Rayagada and Koraput districts of Odisha and Srikakulam, Vizianagaram districts of Andhra Pradesh.

The main tributaries of the River Nagavali are Jhanjavati, Barha, Baldiya, Satnala, Sitagurha, Srikona, Gumudugedda, Vottigedda, Suvarnamukhi, Vonigedda, Relligedda and Vegavati. The Suvarnamukhi river takes its birth in the hills of Salur mandal and takes an eastern direction and finally join the Nagavali at Sangam village in Vangara mandal of Srikakulam District. Vegavathi originates in pachipenta hills of Pachipenta Mandal.

• Vegavathi River takes its origin in the Pachipenta hills in Eastern Ghats. It is a tributary to Suvarnamukhi, which in turn is a tributary to River Nagavali. Salur town and Paradhi are located on the banks of this river. There are two road bridges at these places.

• Jaykaypur: Nagavali river flows near to Jaykaypur. It has been one of the major source of water for companies like JK Paper Limited, a company of JK Organization.
• Rayagada town and district headquarters of Rayagada dist of Odisha, River Nagavali flows in outskirts of the town.
• Srikakulam town, the district headquarters in Andhra Pradesh: River Nagavali flows through Srikakulam town and meets the sea at Kallepalli and Bonthalakoduru villages, 5 kilometers far from Srikakulam town.
• Hatipathar, near Rayagada: It is a place of great scenic beauty with two waterfalls on the course of River Nagavali. The boulders here appear in a way that look like huge elephants.

• Jhanjavati Project 18°51′49″N 83°26′05″E / 18.86361°N 83.43472°E / 18.86361; 83.43472 (Jhanjavati reservoir) is located at Rajyalaxmipuram village in Komarada mandal of Vizianagaram district on Jhanjavati, a tributary of River Nagavali.^[3] It is a rubber dam and first of its kind in Andhra Pradesh and India and the biggest in Asia.^[4][5] It is aimed to utilize 4 TMC of available water and to irrigate / stabilize a total ayacut of 24,640 acres (9,970 ha) in Vizianagaram District. It was dedicated to the nation on 1 January 2006 by Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy. The rubber dam was installed on a concrete plate in technical collaboration with Hydro-Construct of Austria. However, the prior agreement between Odisha and Andhra Pradesh on this project permits to increase the maximum reservoir level submerging Odisha area up to 480 feet (150 m) msl. This dispute is unsettled till now preventing the use of the project's full irrigation potential for the last 20 years due to the 0.6 tmcft reservoir storage capacity against 4 tmcft planned storage.^[6] Andhra Pradesh wants to resolve the issue by constituting Nagavali water dispute tribunal under the Interstate River Water Disputes Act as the dispute is not getting settled by negotiations between the two states.
• Thotapalli Barrage is located on Nagavali River at village Thotapalli in Vizianagaram district and presently being upgraded as barrage.^[7]
• Madduvalasa Reservoir is located at Madduvalasa village in Vangara mandal of Srikakulam district. It is built across the Maddigedda tributary. The project is started in 1977 and provides water for 24,500 acres (9,900 ha) of land for cultivation.^[8]
• Vengalaraya Sagar 18°38′31″N 83°11′15″E / 18.64194°N 83.18750°E / 18.64194; 83.18750 (Vengala Rao Sagar) with twin reservoirs to supply irrigation water, is located on Suvarnamukhi sub-tributary in the upstream of Madduvalasa Reservoir.
• Peddagadda reservoir 18°27′55″N 83°06′47″E / 18.46528°N 83.11306°E / 18.46528; 83.11306 (Peddagadda reservoir) is also located on Peddagadda sub-tributary in the upstream of Madduvalasa Reservoir.
• Narayanapuram barrage 18°29′07″N 83°48′31″E / 18.48528°N 83.80861°E / 18.48528; 83.80861 (Narayanapuram anicut) is located in Burja mandal of Srikakulam district across Nagavali River.^[2]
• Vamsadhara and Nagavali inter link canal is a 30 km (19 mi) long gravity canal planned to inter link the Vamsadhara and Nagavali Rivers.^[9] It will run from Hiramandalam reservoir to Narayanapuram barrage near Amudalavalasa and bring an additional 50,000 acres (20,000 ha) of ayacut under irrigation using 10 tmcft of water from Vamsadhara basin.^[10]

Nearly 9200 MW capacity pumped-storage hydropower plants can be installed using the existing reservoirs to meet the renewable and green power needs of the Uttara Andhra region.

• https://web.archive.org/web/20070101035619/http://vizianagaram.ap.nic.in/
• https://web.archive.org/web/20071008221928/http://nwda.gov.in/writereaddata/sublink2images/104.pdf

18°13′N 83°56′E / 18.217°N 83.933°E / 18.217; 83.933