On the north-eastern side of Mumbai, the Great Indian Peninsular Railway line was extended up to Bhusawal and then split in two.

[1] The Bengal Nagpur Railway was formed in 1887 for the purpose of upgrading the Nagpur Chhattisgarh Line and then extending it via Bilaspur to Asansol, in order to develop a shorter Howrah-Mumbai route than the one via Allahabad.

[5] Further it was planned to construct a 161 miles long Branch Line from Bilaspur to Umaria for through connection with the Great Indian Peninsula Railway(GIPR) system at Katni, This BNR main line was completed in 1886-87 and connected to the Umaria Coalfield Railway, which worked from Umaria to Katni, thus creating a branch line connecting BNR station at Bilaspur to GIP Railway station Katni near Jabalpur.

[7] Although Bengal Nagpur Railway was not a part of original design to connect major points in the subcontinent with a network of railways, it was instrumental in developing a shorter, and hence more popular, route from Howrah to Mumbai and the trunk route from Howrah to Chennai.

[8] In 1925, Bengal Nagpur Railway purchased five steam railcars from Sentinel and Metro-Cammell.