Built o­n a 6,500 sq.m property in Ninh Binh city, the roadside station is o­ne of three such pilot projects in the provinces of Hoa Binh, Ninh Binh and Bac Giang.

The projects form part of an overall roadside planning study in Vietnam , with total funding of 427 million JPY (4.33 million USD), financed and implemented by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in February 2007.

The station not o­nly offers travellers a place to rest, but also serves as a venue to provide traffic safety and local tourism information, as well as promote local delicacies, said Luong Duy Phong, Director of the Ninh Binh coach station management company, which operates the roadside station.

In early February, JICA inaugurated a similar roadside station o­n National Highway No. 6 in Tan Lac district, in the northern mountainous province of Hoa Binh .

The other such station in Bac Giang province is scheduled to finish in the next few weeks. Construction of the three stations came at a cost of 1.16 million USD.

The Vietnam Road Administration expects that by 2015, there will be about 80 standardised roadside stations across the country. Good news for motorists, as they will have the benefit of a range of public services offered by such establishments.