Calcutta University will draw up a list of lesser-known historical sites in the city and the rest of the state and compile information about them, in an attempt to make people aware of their past.

The “mapping and documentation” project will be handled by the university’s history department, which will also send the list to the state government with a plea for preservation of the sites.

The Gandhian Studies Centre, a wing of the history department, will kick off the project within a fortnight, identifying places associated with the Gandhian movement.

At a later stage, the Centre for Advanced Studies in History, recently set up with funds from the University Grants Commission, will identify the other historical sites.

“We will bring out a book and a CD containing a list and photographs of sites associated with Gandhi and also extensive information about them. The book and the CD will be available to all,” said Suparna Gooptu, a senior teacher of the history department and also director of the Gandhian Studies Centre.

“A write-up outlining the significance of each site can be displayed in a plaque, to be installed in front of the structure,” said an official.

The project will be accompanied by research, the findings of which may be incorporated in the undergraduate and postgraduate curricula.

Gandhi had visited Sodepur several times between 1929 to 1947 and had opened a khadi workshop there in 1947. He had also visited the houses of CR Das and Sarat Chandra Bose and also stayed in a house in Beleghata during the riots just before Independence.

“We will identify the other places in Calcutta and Bengal that Gandhi had visited and also make a list of the people he had met,” said Gooptu.