The training centre, which is due to be completed by 2015, will boast facilities for 14 Paralympic sports and is part of the Brazil Medals Plan, which will see 1 billion Real (£276 million/$430 million/€326 million) pumped into sport in the country in the years leading up to Rio 2016.

The centre was officially announced in January this year in the presence of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, whilst the contract for its construction was signed in early August, with Paralympic athletes such as boccia stars Maciel Souza and Bruna Satie and track and field athletes Silvania Costa and Yohansson Nascimento, in attendance.

"It is a definitive step in the work that we are doing with our athletes," said Andrew Parsons, President of the Brazilian Paralympic Committee (CPB).

"It is a dream come true."

Among the sports due to be based there athletics, wheelchair basketball, boccia, swimming, wheelchair fencing, five-a-side football for visually impaired athletes, seven-a-side football for cerebral palsy athletes, goalball, powerlifting, judo, wheelchair rugby, wheelchair tennis, table tennis and sitting volleyball.

Boccia gold medallist Maciel Sousa, who was in attendance as the construction contract was signed, will train at the centre when it is scheduled to open in 2015