The ring road will start from Channi Sher Alam bridge near Rawat and end near Thalian interchange close to the Lahore-Islamabad Motorway.
During Shahbaz Sharif's visit to China in 2010 as Chief Minister of Punjab, the project was discussed between Pakistani and Chinese authorities to secure funding.
[7] The twin cities are connected to the major economic centers of Pakistan through N-5 National Highway, an important bottleneck on the route of the national highway is the main city area of Rawalpindi, the Rawalpindi Ring Road, also known as the R3 project, was initiated to ease the flow of traffic.
In April 2021, the bidding process was put on hold and Prime Minister Imran Khan ordered an inquiry into the alleged route change of the project to benefit private housing schemes and government officials.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistani's and Human Resource Development, Zulfi Bhukari, resigned on 17 May from his position, citing the allegation of scam against him.