History. The Great Indian Peninsula Railway extended its Mumbai-Solapur line to Raichur in 1871 and worked on that line from 1865. During the period 1861-1871 Madras Railway extended its Chennai-Arakonnam line to Raichur to join the GIPR line, thereby linking Mumbai and Chennai.. The metre gauge Gadag-Hotgi section was opened in 1884 and the Hotgi-Sholapur section in 1887 by the Southern ...
