SHANGHAI - Construction of the permanent headquarters building of the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) started in the Shanghai Expo Park Saturday, expected to become a landmark building along Huangpu river.

"We are extremely grateful to Shanghai, and the NDB is proud to call Shanghai its home. We have been received with great warmth and enjoyed enormous support from the Shanghai Government at each our step," said KV Kamath, the NDB president.

"China's and Shanghai's experiences and knowledge will contribute enormously to the rest of the world. And there could be useful learnings from other countries for China as well," said Kamath.

Occupying an area of 12,000 square meters, the headquarters of the New Development Bank will have a total floor space of 126,000 square meters. With a height of 150 meters, the building will have 30 floors above ground and four floors underground.

The architectural design of the bank's headquarters is aimed to be environmentally friendly, human and function-oriented, and at the same time ensure low maintenance costs.

A significant part of the buildings' roofs will be used for greening to reduce the influence of the building on the environment, not only returning an ecological green space to nature but also improving thermal insulation performance.

The building will be equipped with a modern rainwater recycling system to collect rainwater and use treated rainwater for outdoor plant irrigation, road washing and parking washing as well as other uses without outdoor tap water consumption.

The building is expected to be in operation in four years' time.

The NDB was established by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The bank formally opened on July 21, 2015 in Shanghai.