A Team of Western Railway Mumbai bosses on Saturday visited Palghar to meet betel leaf farmers to discuss and explore the possibility of more halts at the station, as tonnes of betel leaves are transported to north India via Palghar station every day.

Sources said that with not many trains halting at Palghar station currently, farmers are forced to try out various options to travel till Mumbai Central to send their wares to Delhi and Saharanpur which many of them cannot afford. “As trains are the most convenient and cheaper option, we try out various methods. We transport betel leaves from Palghar to Mumbai Central by road and then load them onto the 12903 Mumbai-Delhi Golden Temple mail. If the railways provides a halt at Palghar, we can load them here which will help us save money that we spend on road transport,” a local farmer and trader said.