VR safety drills in local languages for discom linemen and contract crews
TL;DR Poleready runs short VR drills for the people who climb poles and work on transformers: discom linemen and the contract crews who now do much of the field work. A van brings headsets to the sub-division office. Discoms and their contractors pay per trained worker, because the 2023 safety rules require training records.
Electricity kills more people in India than in almost any comparable country. Electrical accidents caused over 18,000 deaths in 2023, about one per lakh people, against 0.01–0.04 in Japan, the UK and the US[1]. The CEA found 61% of accidents in 2025 happened on distribution networks[1]. Most victims are members of the public, but field crews die too. Discom petitions list 54 staff or contract workers killed in Rajasthan and 42 in Maharashtra over the periods they cover[1].
So why not just train them more? Many linemen learn the trade from whoever trained them, and taking them off the network for a day of classroom training is hard to justify[2].
What it does, in regulatory terms: a training and assessment aid. It does not certify workers or replace the training institute that a discom must use under the CEA safety regulations. Poleready partners with a recognised institute and supplies the drills and the assessment records.
Each drill takes 10–15 minutes in Hindi, Marathi, Odia or another local language. The worker isolates a feeder, tests for dead, applies earthing on both sides, then climbs. The scenes include the traps that kill people: backfeed from a rooftop inverter or a diesel generator, a wrong-feeder shutdown, a permit that was never returned. Mistakes play out safely in the headset, and the system logs every step a worker skipped. Supervisors see a dashboard by sub-division showing who is due for a refresher.
The seed was a general platform for dangerous jobs, and I've narrowed it to one trade with a clear rule, a clear buyer and a clear record of deaths. Welding safety is covered elsewhere in this directory.
The users are linemen, helpers and contract crews. The payers are discoms, through their training or safety budgets, and the contractors that run maintenance and new-connection work for them. Under the 2023 rules every discom must name an Electrical Safety Officer and keep assessment records for the Electrical Inspector[3]. My rough estimate is ₹800–2,000 per worker per year, and there's no public price list to compare it with.
The CEA safety regulations of June 2023 require distribution owners to train their operation and maintenance staff through their own or a recognised institute, following CEA guidelines, and to keep the records[3]. One private operator's Odisha discoms trained nearly 7,000 contract staff from AR/VR vans across 900 locations in six months[4], which shows the format works at scale. Standalone headsets now cost a fraction of what PC-tethered rigs did.
There is no public figure for spending on utility safety training in India. The narrowest firm signal is the Odisha programme - about 7,000 contract staff trained in six months by one group of discoms[4]. Staff and contract deaths in the discom petitions are a second signal of need[1]. Size the market yourself by counting field staff in two target discoms.
That private operator built its own AR/VR training vans for its Odisha discoms[4], so large private utilities may do this in-house. An Indian XR firm sells industrial XR simulators for fire safety, welding and scaffolds, but no lineman suite that I could find[5]. Two US training firms sell VR safety and trades content, including energy and electrical modules, in English and built for US practice[6][7]. The gap is state discoms and their contractors, in local languages.
| Difficulty | Moderate (48/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹1–1.8 Cr |
| Time to launch | 9–12 months |
Building scenes that match Indian pole hardware, local practices and each discom's own procedures takes field time with senior linemen. Selling to state discoms is slow, often through tenders, and if you've never sat through a public-sector tender then expect it to test your patience. Running the vans means drivers, trainers and headset upkeep across rural sub-divisions.
Poleready needs no licence of its own, but its training only counts if it fits the CEA safety regulations.
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
Don't let AI certify a worker as safe to climb or write the safety procedure. Those calls stay with the recognised institute and the discom, and the records must be accurate after an incident.
Want to work out the AI layer for Poleready? Talk to Yash →
Here's what can go south -
I think this is a solid business for a founder from power distribution or industrial safety training who can sit across from a discom's chief engineer. It is a poor fit for a VR studio with no field knowledge. Prove first that one contractor will pay for 200 workers and that skipped-step rates fall on the second attempt.
Plan for roughly ₹1–1.8 Cr over 9–12 months, mostly on building drills, headsets, vans and trainers.
You don't certify workers yourself. Partner with an institute recognised under the CEA Safety Regulations 2023 so discoms can count your training records.
Yes, though drills must match that country's grid hardware and safety rules. Check who can recognise training before you sell.
The free Poleready validation kit has the line-by-line capital breakdown, the effort scoring, the safety-regulation checklist, a 14-day validation sprint with pass/fail targets, a 90-day launch plan, 10 interview questions for discom and contractor managers, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Poleready or something close to it? The make-or-break work is landing the first discom or large contractor without waiting a year for a tender, and that's where I can help. If you need a hand, you know where to find me. Talk to Yash →
For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.