While residents are thrilled, commercial establishments claim business has fallen by 30-50%Moral of the Model Road story is: Patrons refuse to walk that extra mile — nay, a few metres — for good food. No other fathomable reason seems to be behind the purported 30-50% fall in business of establishments — ranging from eateries to supermarket to juice centres to cellphone retailers — on Mosque Road.Three weeks into the ‘Model Road’ initiative by the city traffic police, no vehicle is allowed to park except in designated spots, unlike the free-for-all earlier when the restaurants used to make the traffic rules. Bangalore Mirror broke the news of the sea change on Mosque Road in its edition dated July 30, few days after the traffic initiative was put in place, and went again on Saturday and Sunday nights to take stock of its impact.Residents are delighted that the traffic initiative is not fly-by-night; they are breathing easy with the strict enforcement of no-parking and the resultant free flow of traffic. Commercial establishments are ruing the same.With a host of popular eateries (both big and small) located on Mosque Road, businesses on the left-hand side of the road for commuters approaching from Coles Road have reportedly been badly hit — customers who often come from far-off areas are seemingly reluctant to visit due to parking woes. These establishments include Empire Hotel, Savoury, Sangeetha and smaller establishments like Om Ganesh fruit centre.Earlier, motorists would park on both sides of the road, leading to congestion and slow-moving traffic during and even after peak hours given that the road is used by BMTC buses as well. But since being selected as a model road by the Pulakeshinagar traffic police, there is a strict no-parking rule in place on the left-hand side of the road, with parking only allowed on the right-hand side.Residents and others who commute regularly in the area love the changes, claiming traffic does not pile up on the road anymore, and that the traffic police’s strict enforcement of the rule has done wonders to clean up congestion.“My family has been living on MDM Road perpendicular to Mosque Road for nearly 80 years. We have always been plagued by bad traffic and jams caused by the parking issues in front of eateries. Now, there are no traffic snarls and problems due to illegal parking. Cops are doing an excellent job round-the-clock,” social worker Imtiaz said.Another old-timer and resident, Reena, added that public movement was priority and that the traffic police had done the right thing; the side-effects of commercial establishments seeing a dip in sales were only temporary, she said, because loyal patrons would return no matter what.Restaurants like Empire and Savoury, electronics store Sangeetha, and smaller shops like Fisheteria and Om Ganesh fruit juice centre, however, had a different story to tell, claiming business had seen a steady decline.“After the traffic police put up barricades and banned parking on the left side of the road including in front of the restaurant, we were forced to introduce valet parking; despite this, business has taken a hit. There are hardly any customers in the afternoons and evenings because there is no place to park during rush hour. At least 40-50% of our business has been affected,” branch manager of Mosque Road Empire, Muhammed Arif, told Mirror.And they were not the only ones.Owner of Fisheteria, Abhay, claimed there had been a sudden dip in sales following Ramzan, when the no-parking rule was enforced. “Although ours is mainly a delivery and take-out service, there has been a decline in customers by nearly 50% from the last three weeks. It’s unfair that the rule only affects the left-hand side of the road,” he said.The owner of Om Ganesh fruit juice centre agreed, saying sales had dropped by 20%; while sources at Savoury also concurred with the loss in business.However, the traffic police are firm with their stance on Mosque Road and the no-parking rule in place. “We chose Mosque Road as our area’s model road because it used to be very chaotic in terms of traffic and congestion throughout the day. Ever since we have strictly enforced the no-parking rule on one side, traffic has been flowing smoothly, and we are delighted that it has in turn had a positive effect on traffic on the other roads. The sales of commercial establishments has nothing to do with us, as residents and commuters are our priority,” said a senior traffic police official.