The British built a rail network throughout the western part of South Asia in the 1880s, and purchased the private Scinde Railway to connect the province to Kabul trade routes. The rail network would later be called the North-Western State Railway. The Kotri Bridge was completed in 1900 to traverse the Indus, and link Hyderabad to Karachi. Hyderabad's economy grew as a result of improved transportation. The city increasingly developed into a consumer market under British rule, and the city's exports began to decline, though increased transit trade allowed the city's economy to continue growing.