The mauled street furniture of Dalhousie Square, stolen cast iron fencings and streetlights that were installed to create a look of the place as it was in the late 18th century when the square was the nerve centre of the British rule in the subcontinent, will be restored.

A survey to identify the extent of missing items found that nearly 30 per cent of street furniture has been stolen.

The Telegraph had reported on January 4 how one of Calcutta’s most spectacular pockets had turned into a picture of neglect and decay.

The design of the cast iron fencing, the street poles and lamps were based on available pictures of Dalhousie Square from the late 18th century when the viceroy ruled from the now Raj Bhavan and the Writers’ Building served as the secretariat, said a former official of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), who was involved in recreating the 18th-century look.

Mayor Firhad Hakim told this newspaper the KMC would replace the stolen furniture. “We will replace the stolen items and recreate the old look,” Hakim said.

The street furniture around Dalhousie Square and stretching up to the southwest gate of the Raj Bhavan was spruced between 2006 and 2008.

A KMC official said poring over documents from the mid-2000s he found that recreating the look had cost ₹16 crore then.

“If 30 per cent of that has been stolen and factoring in the price rise between then and now, one can have an idea of the price of stolen items,” he said.

“We have already obtained permission from the KMC’s heritage conservation committee to go ahead with the replacements. The new items will have the same design, material and colour. We will float a tender for the work,” said the official.

He added that cast iron was not easily available and preparing an estimate for the cast iron fencing along pavements and streetlights would take time.

A walk around Dalhousie Square will show that the cast iron railings along pavements have been stolen, wooden planks have been yanked off benches, streetlights are missing and, in some places, the pedestals on which the lights stood have been ripped off.

The dividers have been stolen from the entire road between Lal Dighi and the General Post Office (GPO), and outside St John’s Church, which houses the mausoleum of Job Charnock, arguably the founder of Calcutta.

The fencing along the pavements outside the west and east gate of the Raj Bhavan is missing. Ditto on the pavement around Lal Dighi.

Outside the Writers’ Buildings, the streetlights are missing. Only the posts remain.

Before the restoration attempt between 2006 and 2008, the street furniture in the square was similar to that in any other part of Calcutta. Concrete pavements were removed and cobblestone pavements were introduced in the square. Though other street furniture has been stolen, the cobblestones remain untouched.

“Our idea was to take the look of the place back to its pinnacle, which would be the period between 1858 and 1911. Post 1857 revolt, the East India Company was dissolved and the direct imperial rule of India by the British state started. The viceroy ruled the entire subcontinent from what is now Raj Bhavan. The Writers’ Building was kind of his secretariat where many officers had their offices,” said the former KMC official.

It changed post-1911, when the administrative capital of the British Raj was shifted to Delhi.

Dalhousie Square was also the commercial nerve centre of the subcontinent at that time.

The KMC official involved in the planned replacement of stolen items said there remains a threat of cast iron fencing being stolen again. Cast iron, the official said, was brittle and easy to break and steal, unlike mild steel.

Hakim told The Telegraph he would raise the issue of security with Calcutta’s police commissioner. “Since the Writers’ Buildings have very few government offices now, the police unit looking after the building can take the additional responsibility of providing security in the area. I will have a word with the police commissioner,” he said.