The 'Rancho Wall' that featured in 3 Idiots will be relocated around 300 mts away from main building.
The 'Rancho Wall' that featured in the Aamir Khan-starrer blockbuster 3 Idiots will be relocated around 300 metres away from the school building, its principal said.
Stanzin Kunzang, principal of the Druk Padma Karpo School in Leh, said that decision was taken to control the large number of tourists into the campus.
"We have decided to relocate and replicate the wall 200-300 mts away as it had become very difficult to control the large number of tourists visiting it everyday," Ms Kunzang was quoted by news agency ANI.
Earlier, there were reports that the school was planning to raze the 'Rancho Wall' and issue ban on entry of tourists into the campus. The report was later denied by the school, which said it is upgrading the structure and the campus buildings to make them stronger against seismic threats.
"The movie gave a lot of publicity to the school and it became a must visit for the tourists visiting Ladakh. However, we realised that the purpose of having a school in the area was getting defeated. Not only students were getting distracted by the tourists flocking the school but also every day the campus was being reduced to a litter ground," Ms Kunzang was quoted as saying by news agency Press Trust of India in its report.
Rancho's cafe near the existing visitor centre at the school campus
The wall was shot in a scene when one of the characters, Chatur, tries to urinate on it and gets electrocuted by an ingenious invention of school children.
The school later painted it as the 'Rancho Wall' which became a picture spot for tourists.
The international project office manages the design and construction of the school.
Rachel Glynn, Project Manager, Design and Construction, Druk Padma Karpo School, said the school's governing body has prepared an enhanced 3 Idiots visitor experience at the top of the school campus, near the existing visitor centre and Rancho's cafe.
"Tourists have not been banned and are very much still welcomed. For health and safety reasons, tourists have been stopped from wandering through the school," Rachel Glynn said.
Set up in 1998 by the Druk Padma Karpo Education Society, the school was partially destroyed in the flash floods and landslides that hit the town in 2010, but was renovated, thereafter.
(With inputs from agencies)