The first passenger train in India from
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in Mumbai to
Thane ran on 16 April 1853 on the track laid by the
Great Indian Peninsula Railway. The GIPR line was extended to
Kalyan Junction in 1854 and then on the south-east side to
Khopoli via
Palasdhari at the foot of the
Western Ghats in 1856. While construction work was in progress across the
Bhor Ghat, GIPR opened to public the
Khandala–
Pune Junction track in 1858. The Bhor Ghat incline connecting Palasdari to Khandala was completed in 1862, thereby connecting Mumbai and Pune. The Western Ghats presented a big obstacle to the railway engineers in the 1860s. The summit of the
Bhor Ghat (earlier spelt as Bhore Ghat) incline being 2,027 feet. The maximum gradient was: 1 in 37 with extreme curvature. "The works on the Bhore ghat comprised 25 tunnels of a total length of nearly 4,000 yards, two of the longest being 435 yards and 341 yards respectively. The Bhore ghat have eight lofty viaducts having a total length of 2,961 feet. Two of the largest are more than 500 feet long with a maximum height of 1160 and 163 feet. There are 22 bridges of spans from 7 to 30 feet and 81 culverts of various sizes." The construction of the Bhor Ghat incline came at a high price: an estimated 24,000 builders died during the eight years of construction. That is roughly one dead builder per meter of railway line - or an average of 8 dead builders per day for a time span of 8 years - an incredible death toll made possible by the neglect and carelessness of British colonialists. The Pune–Raichur sector of the Mumbai–Chennai line was opened in stages: the portion from Pune to Barshi Road was opened in 1859, from Barshi Road to Mohol in 1860 and from Mohol to Solapur also in 1860. Work on the line from Solapur southwards was begun in 1865 and the line was extended to Raichur in 1871. The Manmad–Daund line was opened in 1878 and connected the two main sections (the south-east and north east) of GIPR.
Barsi Light Railway was a long, -wide railway from to . It was opened in 1897 on a long railway track from Barsi Road to Barsi, and extended in stages. The narrow-gauge line from Barsi Road to Pandharpur was extended to Miraj in 1927. Gauge conversion from to of the Miraj-Latur track and extension of the new line to Latur Road was taken up in 1992 and completed in stages. The last phase of the long project was completed in 2008. ==Electrification==