Kathmandu, May 8 -- Nepal's prolonged political deadlock has not just affected the country's response to Covid-19, it has also delayed the implementation of an American-aided project to upgrade Nepal's electricity transmission grid.

ThecontroversialMillennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) project is the biggest single bilateral grant for a specific project in Nepal by a foreign country, buthas become the focus of an intense power strugglerival parties, and is tangled in regional and global geopolitics.

A big part of the $500 million MCC grant is ear-marked for the Kathmandu-Hetauda-Butwal 400KVa transmission line which will eventually evacuate electricity generated from existing and newhydropower plantson the Budi Gandaki, Trisuli, Kali G...