It is part of integrated scheme of a cascade development of the river involving four projects starting with the Gandhi Sagar Dam in the upstream reach (48 kilometres (30 mi) upstream) in Madhya Pradesh and the Jawahar Sagar Dam on the downstream (28 kilometres (17 mi) downstream) with a terminal structure of the Kota Barrage (28 kilometres (17 mi) further downstream) in Rajasthan for irrigation.

The power station was officially declared open on 9 February 1970 by Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India.

The dam and power plant are named after the warrior Maharaja Rana Pratap of Rajasthan.

Its total length from source up to the confluence with the Yamuna River near Etawah at elevation (122 metres (400 ft) is 900 kilometres (560 mi).

[4][5] It flows in a north–south direction for about (360 kilometres (220 mi) in Madhya Pradesh and then enters Rajasthan at Chaurasigarh about 96 kilometres (60 mi) south east from Kota and eventually joins the Yamuna River in Uttar Pradesh near Etawah.

The Gandhi Sagar Dam is located in the middle reach of the gorge section of the river and affords good storage facility.

[5] The nearest railway station is at Kota, which is at a road distance of 59 kilometres (37 mi), from the dam.

This planning was done during the First Five-Year Plan, 1951–1956 launched by the Government of India, after India attained independence in August 1947; the Chambal River with annual flow of 3,400,000 acre-feet (4.2 km3) had till then remained untapped from any major developmental works.

[7][8] While the first stage involved construction of the Gandhi Sagar Dam for creation of storage of 7,322,000,000 cubic metres and power generation and utilization of the stored waters for irrigation from the Kota Barrage in Rajasthan was initiated in 1953–54, the second stage development involved utilization of the water released from the Gandhi Sagar Dam through a second dam structure (48 kilometres (30 mi), downstream at Rawatbhata in Chittorgarh District of Rajasthan envisaging additional storage from the intermediate catchment below Gandhi Sagar Dam.