Unlike major roads in western states of Malaya, the construction progress of the Federal Route 3 was sluggish, due to the lack of economic resources in the eastern states of Malaya. As a result, a gap between Pekan to Endau existed due to very scarce population and swampy terrain. To fill in the gap, the first post-independent Malaysian Minister of Works, Tun V.T. Sambanthan, requested the federal government to allocate a large amount of budget to fund the construction of newer rural roads, as well as the rehabilitation of existing roads. The construction of newer rural road network grew from in 1961 to in the next year. Among these, the longest road projects were the Pekan–Kuala Rompin Road FT3 and Endau–Kuala Rompin Road FT3, both completed in 1962. The completion of both roads had thus concluded the construction of the entire Federal Route 3.