The Sindhuli Road was a new road constructed in a mountainous area that had no existing road whatsoever. Therefore, the consultant (Nippon Koei Co., Ltd.), who was in charge of design and construction supervision, and the workers of the construction companies (initially a joint venture between Hazama and Taisei Corporation, and later Hazama Ando Corporation) established a construction camp in a remote area, where all staff and workers stayed overnight for days. At the construction site in the mountains very far from any cities, a bulldozer was ploughing through the jungle and creating a spectacle that had hardly been seen at any other construction site. A concrete mixer-truck could not come deliver concrete, and all the materials had to be procured locally, mixed, checked for quality, and placed. Project members also shouldered the responsibility of procuring, delivering, maintaining and repairing the heavy machinery. Securing delivery of materials such as cement, steel, and diesel fuel in a timely manner was another task. The construction sites were on steep slopes, therefore, there were many challenges unique to geographical conditions. Such works, for instance, are the construction of a large temporary road only to deliver the equipment and materials, or the construction of scaffolding on steep slopes, and all of these activities were to be well prepared and sequenced so that the construction work would not delay.

The Sindhuli Road is in a mountainous area vulnerable to landslides. Thus ‘proper measures against rainy season’ remained a constant challenge that engineers had to keep in their minds during the 20-year construction period. In June 1999, the second year of construction, section IV experienced the collapse of the raised embankment and landslides at the construction site due to heavy rain exceeding 145 mm/day. In October of the same year, the continuous rain caused landslides in 99 locations. The constant delay of construction during the rainy season and catching up and recovery during the dry months continued for many years.

The torrential rain in July 2002 even destroyed and washed away some parts of the completed road in section IV. Fundamental restoration work was required in the section running along the Roshi River, with 138 locations suffering damage, 15 of which saw road washouts, and the revetment retaining walls were uprooted and either swept away or fell. Although the road was designed with high water levels in estimating standard from the last 50 years, the rainfall at this time recorded by the Kathmandu observatory was 169 mm in 24 hours, setting the highest record in its recording history, and the rainfall for three days at the Roshi River amounted to 312 mm. In recovery efforts, a protective structure was installed on the riverbed by fixing concrete blocks with a width of 6 meters and a thickness of at least 1 meter, and a revetment retaining wall foundation that can withstand a raging torrent was put in place. This experience was utilized in the subsequent design and construction of the project.

In 2014, during the last rainy season just before the completion of construction, the project also faced an unexpected threat of damage. At the beginning of August, heavy rain struck the Sindhupalchok District, northeast of Kathmandu, causing a major landslide on the Araniko Highway. The enormous amount of earth and sand, which disrupted the road for over 5 kilometers, crushed 20 houses, and killed 156 people, blocked the flow of the Sunkoshi River, and formed a dammed lake that was 47 meters deep, 300 meters wide, and 3 kilometers long. If this burst, it was predicted that the section III camp of the Sindhuli Road, 57 kilometers downstream, would be washed away. This nail-biting set of circumstances lasted for 37 days before the reservoir burst. Fortunately, however, it did not cause any major damage and no one was hurt.

On June 2, 2001, a major incident, which would rock the history of Nepal, occurred. That is the massacres of the Nepalese royal family. The then king, King Birendra and the queen, and 10 other royals were killed. It is said that Prince Dipendra, the eldest son of the king, shot the victims inside the royal palace and immediately attempted to commit suicide by shooting himself. Falling into a coma following his failed suicide attempt, the unconscious Dipendra inherited the throne. Dipendra, however, died three days later, with King Birendra's younger brother Gyanendra taking the throne. Compared to King Birendra, who was popular amongst the citizens of Nepal, King Gyanendra and his prince were unpopular. Their coronation was not given blessing, and a few days later, clashing between protestors and the police resulted in a state of emergency. These events would provide a great opportunity for the Maoists, who were hiding underground at the time and had engaged in anti-government activities. Maoists of the Communist Party of Nepal, a political group formed in 1995, started the “the people's war,” in 1996, which caused insurgency in the country. In 2000, the People's Republic was established by the Maoists, acquiring their power mainly in the mountainous rural areas of the Midwest, where infrastructure was underdeveloped and poverty rate was extremely high. Their military operation and influence expanded to the area along the Sindhuli Road, exerting a significant impact on the construction work.

In February 2002, a police station in front of the construction camp in section IV was attacked by Maoists, killing 16 police officers and seriously or slightly injuring 15 others. There were no construction workers at the camp facilities, thus direct damage was avoided. However the construction was inevitably forced to be put on hold, taking a month and a half to resume work after safety measures were implemented. The impact by Maoists on the project, however, was not limited to this one incident. There were Maoists among residents employed for the project, and it was simply difficult and impossible to avoid the influence of Maoists. If a Maoist political strike (known as ‘bhanda’) was called for, the construction would have been stopped. For example, during the three-year construction period of section IV, the number of days the construction was suspended by a bhanda reached 98. At that time, many of the infrastructure projects financed by the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank, which were in a similar situation, had to be suspended. However, the Sindhuli Road project was not suspended even though the construction was delayed or temporarily put-on hold. The project kept the construction on track by taking actions based on information obtained from residents through the Nepalese staff. The Project also drew up a ‘Safety Measures Manual’ that organized crisis management levels and measures to be taken in advance. Another reason why there was no destructive obstruction to the Sindhuli Road could be that Nepalese residents including Maoists, needed and longed for the Sindhuli Road.

(1) Strengthening National Resilience

In Nepal, because of a high risk of blockage of roads and bridges due to large-scale landslides caused by its geographical condition and soil erosion, as well as heavy rainfall during the rainy season, the people have suffered from commodities shortages and price hikes due to the disruption of existing highways caused by such problems. The Sindhuli Road has reduced this risk and enhanced the resilience of the nation and its people's lives. When the Nepal earthquake struck in April 2015, the existing highways were closed, while the Sindhuli Road remained open and served as a logistics infrastructure.