The increasing demand for energy, especially from renewable and sustainable resources, encourages the development of small hydropower plants (SHPs). Earlier hydropower studies were time consuming and less effective due to maximum involvement of the ground based and handheld surveys. This study aimed to present a new multi-criteria approach for harnessing hydropower through establishing small hydropower projects (SHPs) (≤25 MW) instead of large hydropower projects. The multi-criteria approach is based on an integration of advance raster/grid based preparation of geospatial data layers, hydrological modeling and weighted sum overlay analysis. The hydrological data simulation and parameterization were done in SWAT (soil and water assessment tool) model by utilizing 17 years long duration real time hydro-meteorological data sets. For this reason, we selected an Inland based Hamp river catchment, which is a part of Mahanadi river basin of India. The outcomes of this study allow spotting identification of four hydropower potential zones and 10 suitable sites location for SHPs along the stream network by characterizing whole catchment into different sub-catchments. Slope, soil, landuse/landcover (LULC), ET (evapotranspiration), water yield, and rainfall were identified as most important variables for hydropower assessment.