The recent protests in Nepal have shown how critical digital infrastructure and backup systems are, as arson, looting, and vandalism damaged several government and private offices.

Public bodies without solid backup have seen their IT systems shut indefinitely, while agencies with recovery systems, including the Supreme Court and Investment Board Nepal, are restoring records.

The Supreme Court, Department of Transport Management, Health Ministry, police offices and private institutions suffered damage to physical and digital assets. But most of the country’s IT infrastructure and backup systems, including telecommunications, internet, data and cloud services, digital payments and cyber security, continued to function. Officials said a deep hit to digital infrastructure could have left Nepal paralysed.

Manish Bhattarai, head of the Integrated Data Management Centre under the National Information Technology Centre, said Kathmandu’s primary data centre and the disaster recovery office in Hetauda were unharmed. Staff continued to monitor dozens of servers inside Singha Durbar even as fire raged nearby.

“If the data centre had been destroyed, the damage would have been far greater than the physical destruction. The country would have gone blank,” Bhattarai said. “Countless government records and documents that have already burned would have been gone forever without digital backups.”

The centre currently operates websites of more than 2,500 government offices, including all 753 local units. Data from Nepal Rastra Bank, the Home Ministry, Nepal Police and the Office of the Company Registrar are stored there. The centre also hosts servers, provides domains and email services, and manages government networks.

However, the Department of Transport Management lost its server and old archives to fire, raising risks of losing nationwide vehicle and licence data. The destruction has halted transport administration, licence issuance and number plate distribution, affecting thousands of citizens.

At the Investment Board, computers and devices were destroyed, but spokesman Pradyumna Prasad Upadhyay said files hosted at the data centre remain safe. “Local servers and hard disks were burnt. We still need to assess the loss,” he said.

Data recovery for the Supreme Court is also being prepared, according to Santosh Sharma, computer officer at the centre. “We don’t know how much backup they kept, but whatever they had will be recovered,” he said.

As calls grew to burn down Singha Durbar during protests, some youths urged others not to damage the data hub. Sharma said the Nepal Army parked its vehicles to block protesters from reaching the centre.

“Our engineers and staff stayed inside for two to three days, monitoring servers and watching for digital threats,” Bhattarai said. The centre also ensured uninterrupted operation of the Nagarik app and protected data at the National ID office.

Old documents at other offices were lost, but IT systems and backups have helped restore services. “This crisis has underlined the importance of the data centre,” Bhattarai said. “Without it, government operations and administration would have collapsed.”

Private digital infrastructure also suffered partial damage. Internet Service Providers’ Association of Nepal president Sudhir Parajuli said CG Net’s main data centre at City Park was destroyed. Cloud Himalaya’s servers for Vianet were disrupted but not damaged. Fire near Hilton Hotel cut FTTH lines, blocking internet in the area. “If such damage had hit main data centres, internet nationwide would have gone down, halting communication, finance, education and business,” Parajuli said.

Telecom operators also faced attacks. Ncell’s head office and its regional offices in Dhangadhi, Mahendranagar and Pokhara were vandalised and looted, but data centres and towers were safe. Free voice and data services were provided during the unrest.

“Had core infrastructure been damaged, only 30–40 percent of operations would have continued instead of 100 percent,” an Ncell official said. Nepal Telecom reported no major damage to equipment, though its offices in Biratnagar, Pokhara, Birgunj and Itahari were attacked. Spokesman Rabindra Manandhar said the main infrastructure is intact.

If telecom servers had been destroyed, phone and mobile networks would have collapsed, cutting off citizens from each other and disrupting emergency communications.

Digital payment systems also remained operational. Fintech Alliance Nepal chairman Sajan Sharma said critical systems stayed online. Some wallet services faced temporary disruption due to data service outages, but customers barely noticed because of the curfew. About 1,500 point-of-sale machines at Bhatbhateni stores were damaged, though no fintech offices suffered physical destruction.

“If core fintech servers had been hit, banking, digital payments and financial transactions would have stopped, causing an economic crisis,” Sharma said. The episode, he added, has reinforced the importance of disaster recovery planning.

The protests on September 8–9 exposed vulnerabilities but also showed resilience. Officials and workers kept the infrastructure running and prevented a larger breakdown. The episode has highlighted the need to strengthen IT infrastructure and disaster recovery systems to withstand future crises.