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 (SMR) was founded in 1882 to construct a metre gauge(MG) railway between Hotgi and Gadag (opened to traffic in 1884), one of the "famine lines" set up with a guarantee.

Doubling for part length of this project, i.e. from Hotgi–Kudgi (134 km) is taken up under Customer Funding Model.

New Crossing station @ Kudgi with 4 lines for giving connectivity to NTPC was commissioned on 29.01.2017.