The cabinet committee has cleared the proposal to set up a coal regulatory authority.

In this backdrop, experts feel that the government must avoid rigidities in the coal sector with proactive policy to determine efficiency prices in coal.

They suggest that the government must encourage multiple producers in the industry and create a conducive environment to improve productivity and efficacy in prospecting, mining and evacuation.

Government must overhaul market design and do away with the anachronistic public-sector monopoly in coal to shore up efficiencies right across the board, experts feel.

Also envisaged is an appellate authority to adjudicate on pricing and other matters. The new regulatory body needs to mandate comprehensive coal beneficiation at the pithead, to boost calorific value and stamp out delivery of poor-quality coal. Water-guzzling coal washeries must give way to greener technologies of dry beneficiation, experts feel.