"The government is also planning to issue 9.5 trillion rials ($2.5 billion) worth of bonds to settle its huge debt to contractors," Nobakht was quoted as saying by IRNA. In May, deputy minister of roads and urban development, Amir Amini, said the government had spent 360 trillion rials ($9.6 billion) from August 2013-Mach 2017 to develop domestic transport infrastructures, adding that it has yet to settle 105 trillion rials ($2.8 billion) of debt to contractors, Financial Tribune reported.