In 1977, the government proposed to build a new north–south divided highway as an alternative to the Federal Route 1, which would be later known as the North–South Expressway E1 and E2. The proposal to build the new highway was mooted as a result of the severe congestion along the Federal Route 1. Because of the financially massive scale of the project, the highway was planned to be privatised and tolled, but none of the constructors being invited by the government were willing to do the job due to economic uncertainties at that time and the plan could not be materialised. It was only after Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad became the Prime Minister that the North–South Expressway project was revived. The North–South Expressway was launched in 1981, where the Jitra–Bukit Kayu Hitam section was constructed as an upgrade of the existing Federal Route 1 section into a divided highway with partial access control and at-grade intersections. At that time, the construction of the Kuala Lumpur–Seremban Expressway E2 was still ongoing, and therefore the expressway would later form the pioneer route for the southern route. Unlike the other sections of the North–South Expressway, the Jitra–Bukit Kayu Hitam section did not comply with the expressway standards defined by the "Arahan Teknik 8/86: A Guide on Geometric Design of Roads" which was only published by the Malaysian Public Works Department (JKR) later in 1986, resulting the section to be grandfathered as a part of the North–South Expressway E1. After the North–South Expressway was completed in 1994, the expressway took the role of the Federal Route 1 as the main backbone route in Peninsular Malaysia.