Mumbai, July 04 Making a pitch for Central funding of its ambitious Mumbai makeover projects, the state government has demanded that the Rs 2,356-crore first arm of the Mumbai Metro project be granted viability gap funding (VGF) by the Centre. According to senior government officials, in a recent meeting at the cabinet secretariat in New Delhi they had also demanded that the Union Ministry of Urban Development fund 35 per cent of the Rs 1,300-crore Mithi river clean-up project under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). The Centre has agreed to fund 50 per cent of the Rs 400-crore resettlement component in the Mithi project. Senior officials said the Union Ministry of Finance had said it was difficult to grant VGF for the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar section of the Metro project as work on the corridor has already started. "Though the Ministry of Urban Development said it was exploring other avenues to fund the project, we insisted on the grant of VGF,' said an official, pointing out that work on the project had started only after in-principle approval from the Finance Ministry and the Planning Commission. The state has demanded a VGF of Rs 600 crore for the project, which is being executed through the public-private partnership (PPP) route. Though the Centre was exploring options like funding the project under the JNNURM and even an outright grant, it would take time as it was "not a planned scheme.' "Hence, we are pushing the cabinet secretariat to follow up on this vital project,' said the official, adding that the VGF for the Metro railway would be comparatively easier to secure than the other options available. The demand for funding the Mithi river cleanup through the JNNURM was also made. "The Ministry of Urban Development says that since Mithi is a river, it must be funded through the national river action plan of the Ministry of Water Resources. We stressed that though it is a river, it is actually nothing more than a drain that originates and ends in the city, which makes it a fit case for JNNURM funding,' said the official. He said senior officials from the secretariat had asked the Urban Development ministry to have a re-look at the project.