Bridgestone India inaugurates ‘Bridgestone Sarthi Support Centre’ providing healthcare access for truck drivers in Indore
Fourth centre in India, Pune, Maharashtra; Sangagiri Salem, Tamil Nadu; Kalamboli, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra have these centres.
These initiatives have reached more than 72,500 truckers and truckdrivers communities across country to date.
Implemented with Smile Foundation, aims to improve health, safety and wellbeing of India’s trucking community.
Bridgestone India inaugurated its fourth Bridgestone Sarthi Support Centre (BSSC) in Indore, expanding its efforts to provide accessible healthcare and wellbeing services to truck drivers, one of the country’s most critical yet underserved workforces. Strategically located on the Agra–Bombay Road, the Centre reflects Bridgestone India’s commitment to the health and dignity of India’s truck drivers, who form the backbone of the mobility and logistics ecosystem. By offering holistic healthcare services including physiotherapy, primary care, counselling, mental wellbeing support, preventive awareness, and tyre and road safety education, the Centre functions as a single, accessible one stop hub for the driving communities.
Established in partnership with Smile Foundation, the new facility builds on Bridgestone India’s ongoing CSR initiative, Project Sarthi, through which the company has been supporting truck drivers across the country with healthcare, vision screening, road safety awareness and skill development programmes. These initiatives have reached more than 72,500 beneficiaries to date, with nearly 95 per cent belonging to the trucking community.
Speaking at the inauguration, Mr. Uday Wagde, Executive Director – Manufacturing Operations, Bridgestone India, said, “When we started working with trucking community, our focus was on training, healthcare and vision screening camps to truck drivers across the country. Over the years, we have been privileged to positively impact more than 72,500 truck drivers. As we listened to drivers during these interactions, one message became very clear - Support should not be available only when a camp is organised. It should be available whenever a driver needs it. Indore was a very natural choice for this expansion.”
The Indore Centre is the fourth in Bridgestone India’s growing Sarthi Support Centre network after Pune, Sangagiri and Kalamboli. The company plans to establish eight such centres across major freight and logistics corridors in India by 2028, ensuring that truck drivers have access to reliable support wherever their journeys take them.
The initiative aligns with Bridgestone’s global commitment to road safety and sustainable mobility while advancing preventive healthcare and community wellbeing for India’s transport workforce.
About Smile Foundation:
Established in 2002, Smile Foundation is an Indian development organization, directly impacting the lives of over 20 lakh children and their families every year through more than 400 welfare projects on education, healthcare, livelihood, and women empowerment operation in over 2,000 remote villages and urban clusters across 27 states of India.
Smile Foundation works as a catalyst in the cycle of change, complementing and supplementing government efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. It also partners with like-minded institutions and individuals to implement high-impact programmes that enable access, enhance quality and help bring long-term change at the grassroots.
About Bridgestone India
Bridgestone India Private Limited is a group company of Bridgestone Corporation, a global leader in tyres and rubber building on its expertise to provide solutions for safe and sustainable mobility. Headquartered in Pune, Maharashtra, the company employs 3000+ people and offers a diverse product portfolio of premium tyres and advanced solutions backed by innovative technologies, improving the way people around the world move, live, work and play.
About Bridgestone Corporation:
Bridgestone is a global leader in tires and rubber building on its expertise to provide solutions for safe and sustainable mobility. Headquartered in Tokyo, the company employs approximately 130,000 people globally and conducts business in more than 150 countries and territories worldwide. Bridgestone offers a diverse product portfolio of premium tires and advanced solutions backed by innovative technologies, improving the way people around the world move, live, work and play.
Bridgestone Asia Pacific, India, China SBU (Strategic Business Unit) at a Glance