nashik the jewellers strike has taken the shine out of gold and jewellery sales this gudi padwa but real estate and automobile dealers are hoping for bumper sales on the auspicious occasion on thursday city jewellers decided to continue their strike until the union government rolls back the one per cent excise duty on gold and studded silver jewellery this is for the first time that jewellers will keep their shops shut on fridaypramod kulthe joint secretary nashik jewellers association told toi that they had decided to continue our indefinite strike until the union government rolls back the excise duty levied on gold and studded silver jewellery this will be for the first time that the jewellers will shut their shops on the auspicious occasion of gudi padwa due to the strike gudi padwa is the auspicious occasion when people traditionally buy gold this year they will not be able to buy gold we are extremely sorry for that he said the jewellers strike entered 38th day on thursday affecting the business worth rs 550 crore so far there are a total of 800 jewellery shops across the city including 250 in saraf bazaar areathe real estate sector which is passing through recession for the past twothree years is looking forward to better sales after the reduction in the repo rate by the reserve bank of india however the hike in ready reckoner rate be a dampner on the real estate sector the builders are eyeing sales of around 250 flats worth rs 100 crore on the auspicious occasion of gudi padwa last year around 100 flats worth rs 30 crore were sold on gudi padwajayesh thakkar former president confederation of real estate developers association of india credai nashik said the real estate sector is already facing recession but we hope good business on the auspicious occasion of gudi padwa the rbi has recently reduced the repo rate by 025 per cent which will help reduce the rate of interest by the banks we hope sale or bookings of around 200250 flats apart from the real estate market the customers have booked new vehicles at both two wheeler and passenger car showrooms a large number of vehicles are likely to be delivered on gudi padwa sources said around 500 passenger cars and 1200 twowheelers have been booked across all showrooms in the city k jadhav wo works with an automobile showroom said we have got bookings of 125 passenger cars which are to be delivered on gudi padwa the bookings are expected to increase up to 150 by tonight