MOSCOW, October 6 (RIA Novosti) - A giant Soviet-era statue will be put back on its pedestal in northeast Moscow after a long-delayed restoration process on December 5, a city official said on Tuesday.

The Worker and the Peasant Woman by Vera Mukhina, one of the most prominent statues to shape Moscow's landscape, was dismantled for restoration in 2003 and was initially expected to be returned in 2005. Authorities cited lack of financing for repeated delays.

"We hope everything will be completed on December 5 as planned by the mayor," Irina Raber, chief of the capital's northeast administrative district, said.

Raber said fragments of the platform are already being brought to the statue's original site near a major exhibition center.

The 24-meter high steel statue was first showcased at an exhibition in Paris in 1937.

The statue features two figures which seem to be moving fast, holding aloft a hammer and sickle, the symbols of the Soviet Union. Although the statue was created to glorify communism, the enduring strength and grandeur of the image is cherished by many Muscovites.

The composition is a logo for the leading Soviet and now Russian film studio Mosfilm.

Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov earlier said the statue's platform was to be increased to a height of 37 meters to house an exhibition hall capable of accommodating 5,000 people and a cafe. Its total area will be over 8,000 sq m.