Almost 250 acres of once contaminated industrial wasteland in East London are to be transformed into the biggest park built in the capital since the 19th century under a £200 million scheme.

The plans, inspired by the Victorian and postwar pleasure and festival gardens, are part of the £9.3 billion construction project for the 2012 Olympic Games. The green area to be created, including a 64-acre “mini Kew Gardens” tracing the history of British plant collectors, is the same size at St James’s Park, the oldest Royal Park in London.

Nearly half of the park in Stratford will incorporate 700 habitats for bats, otters, slowworms, grass snakes, lizards, eels, newts, toads and bird species including kingfishers, grey herons and song thrushes.

During the Games, which will attract 130,000 spectators a day, the park could accommodate 11,000 on sprawling lawns and hills leading down to about two miles of restored riverbanks, wetlands and frog ponds.

The restoration will allow for the return of 2,000 great crested newts, an endangered species controversially relocated to make way for the construction of the velodrome and cycle circuit.

The plan is not to introduce animals that do not occur naturally in the area but to attract species by manufacturing suitable habitats.

“Certain species, like the newt, will be reintroduced but others will come if we create the right opportunities,” said Andrew Harland, managing partner of LDA Design Hargreaves Associates, the park’s designer.

The company claimed that it would create a 21st-century “smart park” employing green techniques against climate change, such as an island of plants that would create a cooling effect on hot days and a network of reedbeds to cleanse rainwater before it reaches the river.

“I don’t think Londoners know the scale of the transformation that will take place,” said David Higgins, chief executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority. “This was a degraded area with shopping trolleys in the river and birdlife juxtaposed with rubbish tips, but what will make this different is the living river system. We will be creating a brand new park, the first in London for many years.”

The southern part of the park, the access point for 70 per cent of Olympic spectators, is designed to have a festival atmosphere, with big screens showing the live sporting action.

“People will come to the park to experience what’s going on, even when they’re not going to the venues,” said Paul Deighton, chief executive of the London organising committee.

The park will be co-managed after the Games by the London Development Agency and the Lea Valley Regional Park Authority.

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, is responsible for planning the use of the park after the Games, including setting aside a budget for maintenance.