Bijapur railway station

Bijapur railway station is located in Bijapur district in the Indian state of Karnataka and serves Bijapur. Bijapur has historical monuments of architectural importance built during the rule of the Adil Shahi dynasty (1490-1686).HistoryThe wide metre gauge Gadag-Hotgi section was opened in 1884 and the Hotgi-Sholapur section in 1887 by the Southern Mahratta Railway. The line was converted to wide broad gauge in 2008. 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. In the same year (1882), it was contracted by the Indian State of Mysore to work the several metre gauge lines that the Mysore State had built or was in the course of construction.In 1888, a line was extended from Londa towards the Portuguese colony of Goa where it connected with the Marmagao line at Castle Rock. (From 1902 this line was leased as the West of India Portuguese Railway.) By 1890, this line extended from Londa eastwards via Guntakal to Bezwada, and northwards to Poona, turning the SMR from an assortment of branches to a real railway network.In 1908, the SMR merged with the Madras Railway(MR) to form the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway(M&SMR)