Touching Towns Focuses on Hygiene to Fix an Overlooked Gap in India’s Highway Travel Experience

A CA-turned-entrepreneur is tackling India's most overlooked gap, highway hygiene, with a model that educates rather than penalizes, aiming to transform the roadside hospitality sector

India’s Highway Boom vs. Hospitality Gap
- India has invested billions in world-class highways like the Delhi–Chandigarh corridor, the Mumbai–Pune Expressway, and the Golden Quadrilateral.
- Yet, roadside facilities—restaurants, dhabas, hotels, and rest areas—often lack consistent hygiene and safety standards.

Touching Towns’ Mission
- Focuses on education over enforcement: instead of penalizing businesses, it trains owners and staff on hygiene practices.
- Covers areas like kitchen cleanliness, food handling, washroom maintenance, waste management, and overall sanitation.
- Establishments that meet benchmarks are recognized publicly, helping travelers identify safe and clean stopovers.

Why It Matters
- Families, women, and elderly travelers increasingly prioritize hygiene after the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Truck drivers, who spend long hours on highways, benefit directly from clean facilities, impacting their health and productivity.

Scaling Strategy
- Works with existing establishments rather than building new infrastructure, making the model scalable and cost-effective.
- Plans to expand beyond Delhi–Chandigarh to other major corridors, partnering with travel and logistics platforms.

Business Case
- Cleanliness drives customer trust, repeat visits, and reputation.
- Touching Towns explores revenue streams like training services, partnerships, and customer engagement platforms.

Challenges Ahead
- Sustained engagement is needed to change long-standing practices.
- Smaller businesses may struggle with investments, and maintaining consistent standards across diverse regions will be complex.

Big Picture
Touching Towns reflects a shift in India’s infrastructure narrative: it’s not just about building roads, but about ensuring the quality of the travel experience. As Anshuman puts it, “Infrastructure is not just about what we build. It’s about how people experience it.”