Some of the Raj era statues in Latbagan. Telegraph pictures

Two dozen-odd statues of British bigwigs, dating from as far back as 1803 and languishing in Barrackpore?s Latbagan over the past 30 years, will return to the city.

They will be erected in a prominent park, not to recall the colonial past, but to enable people to appreciate them aesthetically.

?Almost all these statues were created by master sculptors from England, Scotland and Australia,? said mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya. ?By keeping them in Latbagan, in Barrackpore, we are depriving students of art from viewing the masterpieces.?

The mayor has discussed the issue with chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who is favourable to the idea of bringing back the statues, banished from the city by PWD minister in the first Left Front government Jatin Chakraborty.

Bhattacharyya has asked mayoral council member (parks and gardens) Faiyaz Ahmed Khan to identify a ?suitable park?, where an open-air gallery could be set up.

Citizen?s Park is an option, said Khan. ?Adjacent to Victoria Memorial, the park is ideally located for putting up the statues. But we will have to seek consent from the army and police first.? The park has two parts, extending north to south. Khan is eyeing the northern end for the statues.

The statues waiting for rehabilitation include that of King George V, Lt-Gen. Sir John Woodburn, Viceroy Marquis Lansdowne, Edwin Samuel Montague, Earl Minto, Ashley Eden, Sir James Outram and Earl Canning. All these, except that of Lansdowne, were shipped to Calcutta from the UK.

Among the creators were academician John Steel, Sir Joseph Edgar Bohem, William Macmillan (royal academician of England), Harry Betts, Sir Thomas Brook and Henry Foli.

Municipal commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay said the practice of erecting statues of historical figures to perpetuate their memory after death was introduced in Calcutta by the British. The first statue to come up was of Marquis Cornwallis, in 1803. By 1939, when a life-like creation of George V came up, the city had around two dozen statues.