A town made by junctions
Guntakal, in Anantapur district, is one of South India's classic railway towns, a place that grew up around its junction and its railway colony. Guntakal Junction (code GTL) is the headquarters of the Guntakal division, now part of the South Coast Railway, and stands about 453 metres above sea level on the Deccan plateau.
Two gauges, two companies
Guntakal's history is a story of rival gauges:
- 1861–1871: the Madras Railway extends its line from Chennai and Arakkonam to Raichur, where it meets the Great Indian Peninsula Railway in 1871, creating the first broad-gauge link between Bombay and Madras through the Guntakal region.
- 1888–1890: the Southern Mahratta Railway builds a metre-gauge line from Vijayawada to Marmagao (Goa), passing through Guntakal.
- 1892–93: the Guntakal–Bangalore line opens.
- 1893: the metre-gauge Guntakal–Mysore Frontier Railway opens.
For a century Guntakal handled both broad- and metre-gauge traffic, until gauge conversion unified the routes.
Six directions
| Section | Towards |
|---|---|
| Guntakal–Chennai | Renigunta, Tirupati and Chennai |
| Solapur–Guntakal | Raichur, Wadi and Mumbai |
| Guntakal–Bengaluru | Anantapur and Bengaluru |
| Guntakal–Vasco da Gama | Hosapete, Hubballi and Goa |
| Guntakal–Vijayawada | Kurnool and the coast |
| Guntakal–Renigunta | The Tirupati pilgrim route |
Electrification, line by line
Guntakal's routes were electrified recently and in stages: Guntakal–Renigunta (310 route km) in 2013, Guntakal–Bengaluru (293 km) in 2016, Guntakal–Wadi (228 km) in 2017 and Guntakal–Guntur (430 km) in 2018.
The station and its shed
GTL has 7 platforms and was selected under the Adarsh Station Scheme. A broad-gauge diesel loco shed opened here in 1995, and the station also has a coaching maintenance depot.
From Guntakal
The line towards Hosapete passes close to the ruins of Hampi, the Vijayanagara capital, a popular side trip for travellers changing here. Our train schedule page lists services on each of Guntakal's six routes.