The Indus Valley State Railway (reporting mark IVSR) was a railway founded in 1871 to provide a rail link between Kotri and Multan and to replace the Indus Steam Flotilla.
The survey of the Indus Valley railway line began in 1869 and was undertaken by John Brunton, the Chief Resident Engineer of Scinde Railway, and assisted by his son William Arthur Brunton.
[citation needed] The Empress Bridge, opened in 1878, carried the IVSR over the Sutlej River near Bahawalpur.
[citation needed] The Indus and Sutlej rivers were seen as major impediments in the expansion of the railways.
The opening of Lansdowne Bridge in 1889 solved this bottleneck, as rail traffic could now travel from Karachi uninterrupted to Lahore.