The wide metre gauge Gadag-Hotgi section was opened in 1884 and the Hotgi-Sholapur section in 1887 by the Southern Mahratta Railway. The line was converted to wide broad gauge in 2008. In 1881 the Bombay Eastern Deccan Railway was under construction with William Michell the Engineer-in-Charge. This line immediately upon opening became the Bijapur Branch of the Southern Mahratta Railway. The Southern Mahratta Railway was founded in 1882 to construct a metre gauge railway between Hotgi and Gadag, one of the "famine lines" set up with a guarantee. In the same year, it was contracted by the Indian State of Mysore to work the several metre gauge lines that the Mysore State had built or was in the course of construction. In 1888, a line was extended from Londa towards the Portuguese colony of Goa where it connected with the Marmagao line at Castle Rock. By 1890, this line extended from Londa eastwards via Guntakal to Bezwada, and northwards to Poona, turning the SMR from an assortment of branches to a real railway network. In 1908, the SMR merged with the Madras Railway to form the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway
Developments
Gadag-Hotgi Rail Doubling is sanctioned in the year 2014-15 Doubling for part length of this project, i.e. from Hotgi-Kudgi is taken up under Customer Funding Model. For this purpose NTPC have deposited Rs.946 cr. with Railway. New Crossing station @ Kudgi with 4 lines for giving connectivity to NTPC was commissioned on 29.01.2017. Work is in progress in the section between Minchinal-Lachyan is targeted for commissioning during 2017-18.Tenders valued @ Rs 14 crores have been called for redevelopment of the station. Gadag-Hotgi Section is also sanctioned for Electrification and tenders are floated for the same. M/s Kalpataru PowerTransmission Ltd, Gandhinagar has been awarded for electrification of Hotgi to Gadag.
Future
Karnataka state government had proposed eleven new railway projects in the state. The Bijapur-Shahabad new line project was one of these proposed new lines to be constructed on a public-private partnership basis. The Railway Board had proposed to undertake the Bijapur-Shahabad project along with other projects on PPP mode in 2010-11. As the project was meant to initiate and expedite development of the area, the state government will be providing the land required for the projectsfree of cost, apart from partial funding. The Railway Board entrusted this and other similar projects to Rail Vikas Nigam Limited, a special purpose vehicle established by the railways for undertaking projects on PPP mode. However, as the private sector has not evinced any interest in such projects and because of shortage of funds for new projects the Railway Board has asked the state government to fund the project.
