The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council of Pakistan has agreed to carry out the upgrading of The Route 1 railway and the construction of the Hweli Yangdrang port. The total cost of the $6.8 billion project will be Shared between China and Pakistan, and China will provide Pakistan with $6.2 billion in long-term preferential loans. The decision by the Pakistani government marks substantial progress in the largest and strategic transport infrastructure project under the CPEC framework.

The project construction will be implemented in three phases, according to the concluding document of the Executive Committee of the ECB. It comes as Pakistan is implementing a bail-out loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund that limits the scale of its spending on big infrastructure projects. As a result, the Pakistani government has limited the cost of the first phase of the project to $2.4 billion during the loan agreement period, followed by the second and third phases to $2.7 billion and $1.7 billion respectively. The document also said that after the upgrade, the 2,655km Line 1 will see passenger trains run at a speed of 165 kilometers per hour, up from the current 65 to 110 kilometers, and the capacity will increase from the current 34 one-way trains to 171 one-way trains per day.

To increase the direct impact of the project on Pakistan's domestic economy, $4.1 billion (672 billion rupees) of the cost of the project will be used to purchase materials, equipment and labor in Pakistan, and another $2.7 billion worth of machinery and equipment will be imported from abroad. Pakistan's Prime Minister, Imran Khan, has approved a restructuring of Pakistan Railways to support the upgrading of the hardware of The Route 1 railway. Under the plan, Pakistan Railway Holding Company will be established as the parent company.