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.
[1] 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 to Hospet.
[3] The Londa - Castle Rock line was later taken over by West of India Portuguese Railway.
The railway lines were converted to 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) broad gauge in 1997.