₹50 Lakh Crore Dream: Indian Railways’ Potential Market Cap

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Former Railways GM Lalit Chandra Trivedi argues corporatization could unlock Indian Railways’ true value, with its vast land bank and monopoly scale making it India’s most valuable company.

By S JHA

NEW DELHI, September 11, 2025 — Indian Railways (IR), currently a departmental undertaking under the Ministry of Railways, could become India’s most valuable listed company if ever corporatized and taken public, according to Lalit Chandra Trivedi, former GM of Railways.

Unlike ONGC or SBI, IR is not a statutory corporation and thus cannot issue shares. But if restructured into a holding company, analysts believe its unmatched scale, assets, and monopoly status could propel its valuation far beyond Reliance Industries or TCS.

With annual traffic receipts of ₹2.5 lakh crore, a workforce of 12 lakh, and 68,000 km of track, IR also sits on a vast land bank of 4.8 lakh acres — half of it underutilized, much of it in prime urban locations, argued the retired official of the Railways. Monetization efforts are already underway, with potential valuations pegged at ₹10–30 lakh crore, he added in a post shared on Linkedin.

“A hypothetical IPO could place IR’s market cap around ₹50–55 lakh crore ($600–650 bn), making it one of the top five global companies — dwarfing Union Pacific (₹11.5 lakh crore) and Canadian National Railway (₹7.5 lakh crore),” added Chaturvedi.

However, the path is fraught with challenges: political sensitivities, land title disputes, legal hurdles, and investor concerns over transparency. Still, Trivedi argues, the potential is undeniable — corporatization could transform IR into India’s ultimate blue-chip giant.

Incidentally, the Railways faces the challenge of encroachments on its land holdings. Also, the railway land is meant for the purposes of rail expansions in future.

Currently, the IRCTC and IRFC, the two offshoots of the Railways, are listed on the stock market. A number of companies from the private space working in the railway sector are listed on the stock market.

Privatisation of the railways has also been a recurring theme in the political and policy domains. The Railways has a number of factories which manufacture rail coaches, wagons, wheels, etc.

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