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 infrastructure has undergone a remarkable transformation over the past decade. Billion-dollar expressways now connect metros to tier-2 cities, cutting through mountains and valleys with engineering precision that rivals global standards. The Delhi-Chandigarh highway, the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, and the newly expanded Golden Quadrilateral stand as testaments to India's infrastructure ambitions. Yet, ask any frequent highway traveler about their journey, and a common concern emerges: finding a clean, safe place to stop remains a challenge. Despite the world-class roads, the pit stops, restaurants, hotels, and rest areas, haven't kept pace with the infrastructure boom. Enter Touching Towns, a hygiene-focused startup that's attempting to bridge this critical gap. Founded by Chartered Accountant Anshuman Chaudhary, the venture is working to establish cleanliness benchmarks across highway establishments, starting with the Delhi-Chandigarh corridor. The Problem: India's Highway Hospitality Gap India has invested heavily in highways, recognising their importance for trade, tourism, and regional development. Expressways and national highways now form the backbone of long-distance travel, connecting industrial hubs, ports, tourist destinations, and urban centres. However, the ecosystem that supports highway travel has not evolved at the same pace. For families on road trips, business travellers on tight schedules, or truck drivers covering thousands of kilometres, finding a clean, safe, and reliable place to stop is often a challenge. Poorly maintained washrooms, inconsistent food safety practices, and limited accountability continue to define much of the roadside hospitality sector. While there are exceptions, hygiene standards vary significantly from one establishment to another, often depending on individual awareness rather than any structured system. “The journey doesn’t end with good roads,” said Anshuman. “For travellers, the experience includes where they stop, eat, rest, and refresh. That part has been largely ignored.” The issue has gained greater attention in recent years, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic. Hygiene and cleanliness, once considered secondary concerns, have become non-negotiable expectations for many travellers. Families, women travellers, and elderly passengers increasingly plan their stops based on perceived safety and sanitation. An Unconventional Entrepreneurial Shift Anshuman’s decision to leave a stable professional career to work on highway hygiene may appear unconventional. Trained as a Chartered Accountant, his early career involved structured corporate work far removed from roadside eateries and rest areas. But frequent highway travel exposed him to a recurring problem. Despite modern roads, basic amenities often fell short. Conversations with fellow travellers and roadside business owners revealed a deeper issue: a lack of awareness, training, and standardised practices rather than deliberate neglect. According to Anshuman most owners are open to adopting better practices. However, many are not fully aware of what good hygiene standards look like or how they can be maintained in a sustainable way. That insight shaped the foundation of Touching Towns, a venture designed to work with highway establishments rather than against them. Education Over Enforcement Unlike inspection-driven models that rely on penalties and compliance checks, Touching Towns adopts a collaborative approach. The startup focuses on educating owners and staff, building capacity, and creating systems that encourage continuous improvement. Many highway restaurants, dhabas, and small hotels are family-run operations, often located in semi-urban or rural areas. Access to professional training, standard operating procedures, and structured feedback is limited. Touching Towns begins by conducting on-site assessments to understand existing practices. These assessments cover kitchen hygiene, food handling, washroom maintenance, waste management, and overall cleanliness. Based on the findings, the startup provides customised training programmes for staff, designed to be practical and easy to implement within existing constraints. The focus is on habits and processes rather than expensive upgrades. “We are not here to penalise or shut anyone down,” Anshuman said. “The goal is to create awareness and pride in maintaining clean spaces.” Regular monitoring and feedback mechanisms form a key part of the model. Establishments that consistently meet hygiene benchmarks are recognised, helping travellers identify reliable stopovers and encouraging businesses to maintain standards. A Large, Fragmented Ecosystem India’s highway hospitality sector is vast and highly fragmented. Thousands of roadside eateries, rest areas,
