Southern Mahratta Railway (SMR) was a railway company in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

founded in 1882.

History

Captain Charles Cooper Johnson, officiating as constructing engineer of railways in 1858, forwarded the proposal for a railway to be constructed and called it the Southern Mahratta Railway. The Southern Mahratta Railway company was formed on 1 June 1882 with its headquarters at Dharwar. Southern Mahratta Railway's first line was a metre gauge line of 40.5 mile long from

Bellary Ballari (formerly Bellary) is a city in the Ballari district in state of Karnataka, India. Ballari houses many steel plants such as JSW Vijayanagar, one of the largest in Asia. Ballari district is also known as the ‘Steel city of South Ind ...

to Hospet. This line was opened for traffic on 24 March 1884. In 1886 the

Mysore State Railway Mysore State Railway (MSR) was a railway company which was operated by the government of the Kingdom of Mysore. After India's constitution into a republic, MSR became part of Southern Railways of the government of India on 14 April 1951. Hist ...

's management was also taken by the Southern Mahratta Railway company. In 1888, a line was extended from Londa towards

Portuguese Goa The State of India, also known as the Portuguese State of India or Portuguese India, was a state of the Portuguese Empire founded seven years after the discovery of the sea route to the Indian subcontinent by Vasco da Gama, a subject of the ...

where it connected with the Marmagao line at Castle Rock. In 1889-90 the Southern Mahratta Railway company constructed the first coast to coast line from Marmagoa to Beswada. The Londa - Castle Rock line was later taken over by West of India Portuguese Railway. SMR was later merged with Madras Railway to form the

Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway The Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway was a railway company that operated in southern India. It was founded on 1 January 1908 by merging the Madras Railway and the Southern Mahratta Railway. Initially, its headquarters was at Royapuram in ...

. The merger took place on 1 January 1908.

Conversion to broad gauge

The railway lines were converted to

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , more known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union countries ...

in 1997.All set for doubling of Londa–Hospet rail line
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Southern Mahratta Railway Transport in Vasco da Gama, Goa Transport in Hubli-Dharwad Metre-gauge railways in India Defunct railway companies of India History of Karnataka Rail transport in Goa Rail transport in Karnataka Railway companies established in 1882 Railway companies disestablished in 1908 1908 disestablishments in India Indian companies established in 1882