Jaypee Balaji Cement Plant

The Jaypee Balaji Cement Plant is located out at Survey No.99, which is quite close to Bodhavada Village. It is a big site, so there’s a lot of walking involved just to get from one side to the other. The whole place is usually covered in a thin layer of gray dust, which is just how it goes when you’re dealing with cement all day. We have the big silos and the conveyors that run almost all the time. The trucks come in early in the morning to load up, and the noise of the engines is the first thing you hear. It’s a very rural area, so once you leave the plant gates, it gets quiet very quickly. We wear our boots and hard hats every day and just get on with the shifting and the mixing. The sun beat down on the open ground around the survey plot, and there isn't much shade unless you’re inside the main building. We have a small area where we eat our lunch and have some water, but most of the time we are out near the machinery. Working at a plant like this means your clothes are never really clean, but nobody here minds that. We just focus on keeping the production going so the trucks can stay on schedule. It’s a heavy, physical job that doesn't leave much time for sitting around. We've been operating near Bodhavada for a while now.