It was opened in the early 1890's, a few years after the UBL-GTL line was opened. The portion till Harihar was in the Bombay Presidency and the rest of the route (Harihar-SBC) was constructed for the Rajah of Mysore.
For many years, the main long distance traffic on the route was to Pune, en-route to Bombay, as most of the people with government jobs had to work in Bombay. After independence, the traffic got diverted to Bangalore.